Egypt might actually be the only country on earth to not have a name. Outsiders have a name for it like the Greek inspired name Egypt. But the country itself has always been known by a description, that being “the country” or “the big country” translated to Misr in modern Arabic.
The reason for this is quite simple, back in the days of city states and small nations Egypt was the only real nation.
Here is a map of the major civilisations of the middle and near east. Of these only Egypt was and still is a truly united entity that survived for thousands of years. It truly was the country.
It has had unofficial names mostly related to its capital or dynasty, for example: Memphis, Wasset, Ptolemaic, Fatimid or Mamluk.
So, it has never changed its official name for that wasn’t really a concept back then and Egypt didn’t have a real name. Instead it had a title similar to United States or United Kingdom. In modern Egypt they just use a word that is a composition of sorts. Not uncommon considering a Spanish name for Americans is united nations (estadounidense).
There is also the name Km.t (pronounced as Kemet) which is sometimes used as the ancient name of Egypt but it isn’t. It is the name of the land around the Nile called the black land. Together with the Lower lands (red) and the Upper lands (white) it forms the country. This is where the colours red, white and black come from as the national symbols of the country. So Km.t is an essential part of the country in an almost spiritual way, but it does not represent the entire country.
There is also the name land of Ptah some think is the ancient name of Egypt but it only refers to greater Memphis, Egypt largest city for 3000 years. All major Egyptian cities had a god and Memphis’ god was Ptah.
