2466: county Sep 12, 2021

Counties are named because they were ruled by counts, but at least in England, not to mention other places, these could have been ruled by other types of people, including earls, lords, dukes, etc.. Before this, the Old English used 'scir', an ancestor of the Modern English 'shire'. Moreover, 'count' comes from Old French which was meant to be a translation of 'earl' (O.E.: 'eorl') but 'count' was primarily used as a term for foreign leaders in particular.