The story
Borrowed from Mandarin 湖南 (Húnán) Wade-Giles romanization: Hu²-nan², literally “south of the lake”, referring to Lake Dongting. Doublet of Honam.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Hunan
Hu·nanToday it means: A province of China, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting. Capital: Changsha. Full definition →