Carly Silver

Whether it’s French fries or a Dutch Baby, vodka or Chinese Checkers, there are lots of common things that aren’t from where you think. Names can quite often be deceiving, especially when it comes to animals, food, or common household items. Some of your favorite products or inventions hail from different places than you might expect, simply due to their fascinatingly inaccurate names.

One of these inventions from unexpected places is the Venetian blind. Despite the Italian moniker, the slatted wooden window treatment is Middle Eastern. And diners love fortune cookies – but did you know that the tasty treat that accompanies your Chinese food was probably invented by a Japanese immigrant to America? Pull up a chair, get out an atlas, and prepare to be surprised by these things that come from different countries than you thought.

________________________________________

• French Horn

Photo: ClaraDon / flickr / CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

Surprise, surprise – the French horn isn’t actually French, but German. The instrument was originally based on hunting horns, but was modified over time to create larger, more flared bells. In 1814, a German man created the valves to allow the player to change keys; his instrument became the first modern French horn.

• Great Dane

Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

The massive dogs known as Great Danes don’t actually have anything to do with Denmark. Back in the 16th century, they were dubbed “English Dogges.” In the 17th century, these massive animals became favorite pets of German princes. The pups weren’t known as “Danish Doggen” until a Hamburg dog show in 1863; it’s unclear why they were dubbed as such, but the moniker stuck.

• French Fries

Photo: Metaweb (FB) / GNU Free Documentation License

French fries reportedly hail not from France, but from Belgium. The debate over their origin still rages today; some claim that street vendors first began selling fried potatoes on the Ponte Neuf (a bridge in Paris) before the French Revolution. The Belgians claim that French fries actually hail from their city of Namur. Belgians would fry their fish, and when the rivers froze over and cut off the food supply, they cut potatoes into the shape of fish and fried those instead.

• Danish

Photo: jpellgen / flickr / CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Danish pastry isn’t actually from Denmark – in fact, Danes call the pastries “Viennese.” The treats likely became known as Danishes once Danish bakers began traveling the world.

The delicious baked good came from a French baker’s error. According to the story, Claudius Gelee didn’t add butter to his flour. To hide his mistake, he folded lumps of butter into the dough. The resulting light, flaky pastry was a hit, and Gelee opened a cafe in Paris, then another in Florence.

• Chinese Checkers

Photo: Chris Blakeley / flickr / CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

The star-shaped game known as Chinese Checkers has German and American origins. It’s based on a game called Halma, created by a Harvard University professor in 1883. In 1892, a German game company, Ravensburg, patented and sold the game as Stern-Halma (stern is German for “star”). Another company brought it back to the United States in 1928; it was rebranded as Chinese Checkers, apparently because of growing fascination with the Far East.

• Vodka

Photo: tim-johnson / flickr / CC-BY 2.0

The Russians might have perfected vodka, but the alcohol is actually Polish. It was invented in Poland around the 11th century, and first entered the Russian alcoholic repertoire around the 18th century. At that time, Poland was partitioned, and Russia acquired the piece of the country that produced lots of vodka. It’s popularity was partially medicinal; in the 1500s, an apothecary even wrote about how vodka supposedly enhanced fertility.

• Guinea Pig

Photo: photon_de / flickr / CC-BY 2.0

This cute rodent is originally from South America, not from the African nations of Equatorial Guinea or Guinea Bissau. So where did guinea pigs get their name? The critters (who sound like piglets, according to some) first crossed the Atlantic in the late 16th century, and might have been sold in England as pets for the low price of one guinea. Conversely, “guinea” could have been a mispronunciation or misspelling of the nation of Guyana in South America.

• German Chocolate Cake

Photo: Metaweb (FB) / CC-BY

In a twist, German chocolate cake was actually named after a man whose last name was German, rather than the country itself. In the mid-19th century, English baker Sam German created a bar of baking chocolate that was dubbed “Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate.” The apostrophe and possessive “s” were eventually dropped, and a century later, a recipe for a new type of chocolate cake was published in a Texas newspaper. The super popular dessert became known as German chocolate cake for the chocolate used to bake it.

• Fortune Cookie

Photo: Bennilover / flickr / CC-BY-ND 2.0

Although fortune cookies are most often served with Chinese food, they appear to have been a Japanese or Chinese-American innovation. Some suggest that Cantonese immigrant David Jung – the brains behind Los Angeles’s Hong Kong Noodle Company – invented fortune cookies in the early 20th century, while others claim that a Japanese immigrant named Makoto Hagiwara created them around the same time, also in California. The latter explanation seems to hold more water, as similarly-shaped cookies are still left at shrines in Japan.

• Venetian Blinds

Photo: Anders Adermark / flickr / CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

Venetian blinds aren’t actually Italian in origin, but were Middle Eastern inventions that Venetian merchants brought to Europe. They became popular in France and America in the 18th century, and the British developed tilting slats for windows around the same time.

• French Poodle

Photo: Norcopia / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0

This breed of fluffy pup was probably German in origin. The poodle’s name likely derives from “Pudelhund,” which means “water-splashing hound.” Perhaps the “French” title came from the court of King Louis XVI of France; he popularized the breed during the 18th century.

Once upon a time, proto-poodles were used to track down waterfowl that hunters killed. And poodles’ unusual haircuts? They’re also a hunting thing: their hip fluff would weigh them down in the water, so owners would shave it off, but leave their ankle fur to prevent rheumatism.

• Corned Beef And Cabbage

Photo: jeffreyw / flickr / CC-BY 2.0

Corned beef and cabbage, the unofficial official food of St. Patrick’s Day, isn’t Irish. In fact, corned beef first entered the Irish-American diet in New York City, when immigrants first encountered Jewish cuisine. It was yummy and cheap to make, as was cabbage, so this dish was a good combination of inexpensive ingredients for newcomers to America.

• Jordan Almonds

Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domain

The candy-coated nuts known as Jordan almonds aren’t from Jordan. The name might originate from the French word “jardine,” or garden, or perhaps it refers to a type of almond that grows along the Jordan River. And there’s another option: “Jordan almonds” could be a corruption of the name of the French town Verdun, where an apothecary started using sugar to coat medicinal pills in the Middle Ages.

Regardless of where exactly the almonds came from, there’s definitely a French connection. Sugar- or honey-coated nuts have been a delicacy in Europe from ancient times onwards.

• Dutch Baby

Photo: bptakoma / flickr / CC-BY 2.0

The mega-fluffy, pancake-like treat known as a Dutch Baby is German – sort of. An invention of Manca’s Cafe in Seattle, Dutch Babies were probably based on a German pancake recipe. The chef’s sister couldn’t pronounce “Deutsch” – the German word for “German” – so she dubbed the pancakes “Dutch” instead. These 20th century innovations became a nationwide sensation.

• Egyptian Mau

Photo: Muffet / flickr / CC-BY 2.0

The Egyptian Mau’s name is similar to the ancient Egyptian word for “cat,” but these critters aren’t from Egypt. Genetic tests indicate the cats are more closely related to breeds like the Turkish Angora cat rather than modern Egyptian kitties.