Japan's Name

Japan
日本 which is pronounced "Nihon" or "Nippon" is the proper name of Japan.
日本 is made up of two "Kanji". Kanji is the Japanese usage of Chinese characters. The rules are slightly different in translation, and the spoken languages are completely different but because Kanji uses symbology rather than direct phonetics sometimes the meaning is the same even when the pronunciations are different.
Now I'm going to tell you something I figured out all by myself and I don't care what anyone else says.
Japan is known as "Land of the Rising Sun". Which is supposed to imply the day begins in Japan, as Japan is the eastern-most land in Asia.
Japan is just a bunch of mountains and Valleys, so I can tell you from experience it is hard to actually see a sunrise in Japan.

日= "Nichi" means 'day' and 'sun'. Like in the adoption of the concept of 'Sunday' Japan took it literal and made it 'sun day' or 'nichiyobi' and shows up twice 日曜日.
本 = "Hon" means 'book'. It also means 'origin'.
日本 = "Nihon" could literally be understood as 'sun origin'.
"Land of the Rising Sun" doesn't refer to 'sunrise' but rather the actual sun's beginning.
So, "Land of the Rising Sun" isn't just the nickname, it's a transliteration of the actual name of the country.
(now for some unoriginal research)
If America were to adopt a similar "nickname" it might be "Land of Master Workmen" or "Land of Work Rulers". America came from Amerigo, Amerigo came from Amalrich which is Gothic for "work ruler". Other names that have descended are Amery, Emeric, Emery, and the feminine forms which are more common in America; Amelia and Emily.