Peru (Perú) in other languages: flag, ISO codes and regions in Quechua
Peru is Perú in Spanish and Piruw in Quechua, officially República del Perú (Republic of Peru), coded PE, PER and 604. Its name is listed here in 85 languages, followed by the 26 first-level units of ISO 3166-2 in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara.
Official languagesSpanish; Quechua, Aymara and other indigenous languages co-official where they predominate
Checked
- alpha-2
- PE
- alpha-3
- PER
- numeric
- 604
República del Perú
Piruw Ripuwlika
- English
- PeruRepublic of Peru
- Capital
- LimaLima
ISO 3166-1, checked 28 October 2026
Peru in other languages: list of exonyms
| Languages | ISO 639-2 | Name | Romanised |
|---|---|---|---|
| English, Afrikaans, Azerbaijani, Czech, Danish, German, Basque, Finnish, Scottish Gaelic, Croatian, Hungarian, Igbo, Indonesian, Kinyarwanda, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Malay, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Romansh, Romanian, Rundi, Slovak, Slovenian, Sami, Samoan, Albanian, Swahili, Swedish, Turkmen, Turkish, Uzbek | eng / afr / aze / ces / dan / deu / eus / fin / gla / hrv / hun / ibo / ind / kin / lav / lit / ltz / msa / nld / nor / pol / roh / ron / run / slk / slv / smi / smo / sqi / swa / swe / tuk / tur / uzb | Peru | same as written |
| Catalan, Faroese, Galician, Icelandic, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog | cat / fao / glg / isl / ita / por / spa / tgl | Perú | same as written |
| Corsican, Maltese | cos / mlt | Perù | same as written |
| West Frisian, Kurdish | fry / kur | Perû | same as written |
| Breton | bre | Perou | same as written |
| Welsh | cym | Periw | same as written |
| Esperanto | epo | Peruo | same as written |
| Estonian | est | Peruu | same as written |
| French | fra | Pérou | same as written |
| Irish | gle | Peiriú | same as written |
| Latin | lat | Peruvia | same as written |
| Quechua | que | Piruw | same as written |
| Vietnamese | vie | Pê-ru | same as written |
| Abaza, Bulgarian, Chechen, Chuvash, Karakalpak, Kabardian, Kyrgyz, Komi, Macedonian, Mongolian, Ossetian, Russian, Serbian, Tajik, Ukrainian | abq / bul / che / chv / kaa / kbd / kir / kom / mkd / mon / oss / rus / srp / tgk / ukr | Перу | Peru |
| Belarusian | bel | Перу, Пэру | Peru, Pèru |
| Arabic | ara | بيرو | Bīrū |
| Persian | fas | پرو | Perū |
| Uyghur | uig | پېرۇ | Peru |
| Urdu | urd | پیرو | Perū |
| Dhivehi | div | ޕެރޫ | Perū |
| Amharic | amh | ፔሩ | Peru |
| Hebrew | heb | פרו | Perū |
| Yiddish | yid | פערו | Peru |
| Greek | ell | Περού | Peroú |
| Armenian | hye | Պերու | Perou |
| Georgian | kat | პერუ | Peru |
| Hindi | hin | पेरू | Perū |
| Tamil | tam | பெரு | Peru |
| Chinese | zho | 祕魯 | Bilu |
| Burmese | mya | ပီရူး | Piẏù |
Chinese 祕魯 is given in traditional characters. Belarusian lists a second form with è beside the Russian-style Перу.
Birú, Perú, Piruw: where the name comes from
The usual explanation traces the name to Birú, a local ruler near the Bay of San Miguel in present-day Panama in the early 16th century. Spanish conquistadors who reached the area in 1522 took it for the southern end of the New World, and when Francisco Pizarro pushed further south the new lands came to be called Birú or Perú. The Inca Garcilaso de la Vega told a different story of a misunderstanding between sailors and a man they met on the coast.
The Spanish crown made the name official in the Capitulation of Toledo of 1529, which named the Inca Empire the province of Peru. The colony became the Viceroyalty of Peru, the independent state the Peruvian Republic, and since the constitution of 1979 it has been the Republic of Peru.
Most languages in the table copy the Spanish form with small changes. The accent stays in Catalan, Portuguese, Italian-style Perù in Corsican and Maltese, and Perû in Frisian and Kurdish. Quechua writes Piruw, the same spelling it uses in Piruw Ripuwlika, and Arabic writes بيرو (Bīrū) with b. Latin turned the name into Peruvia.
Regions of Peru in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara
ISO 3166-2:PE lists 26 first-level units: 24 regions, the region of Callao and the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima. Each name appears in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara, as ISO publishes them. The old departments and Callao, a constitutional province, were all given the category region on 3 November 2014.
| ISO 3166-2 | Spanish | Quechua | Aymara | English | Administrative centre | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regions regiones25 | ||||||
| PE-AMA | Amazonas | Amarumayu | Amasunu | Amazonas Region | ChachapoyasChachapoyas | |
| PE-ANC | Ancash | Anqash | Ankashu | Ancash Region | HuarazHuaraz | |
| PE-APU | Apurímac | Apurimaq | Apurimaq | Apurímac Region | AbancayAbancay | |
| PE-ARE | Arequipa | Ariqipa | Arikipa | Arequipa Region | ArequipaArequipa | |
| PE-AYA | Ayacucho | Ayakuchu | Ayaquchu | Ayacucho Region | AyacuchoAyacucho | |
| PE-CAJ | Cajamarca | Kashamarka | Qajamarka | Cajamarca Region | CajamarcaCajamarca | |
| PE-CAL | El Callao | Qallaw | Kallao | Callao | CallaoCallao | 2014 Category changed from constitutional province to region |
| PE-CUS | Cusco (Cuzco) | Qusqu | Kusku | Cusco Region | CuscoCusco | |
| PE-HUV | Huancavelica | Wankawillka | Wankawelika | Huancavelica Region | HuancavelicaHuancavelica | |
| PE-HUC | Huánuco | Wanuku | Wanuku | Huánuco Region | HuánucoHuánuco | |
| PE-ICA | Ica | Ika | Ika | Ica Region | IcaIca | |
| PE-JUN | Junín | Hunin | Junin | Junín Region | HuancayoHuancayo | |
| PE-LAL | La Libertad | Qispi kay | La Libertad | La Libertad Region | TrujilloTrujillo | |
| PE-LAM | Lambayeque | Lampalliqi | Lambayeque | Lambayeque Region | ChiclayoChiclayo | |
| PE-LIM | Lima | Lima | Lima | Lima Region | HuachoHuacho | |
| PE-LOR | Loreto | Luritu | Luritu | Loreto Region | IquitosIquitos | |
| PE-MDD | Madre de Dios | Mayutata | Madre de Dios | Madre de Dios Region | Puerto MaldonadoPuerto Maldonado | |
| PE-MOQ | Moquegua | Muqiwa | Moqwegwa | Moquegua Region | MoqueguaMoquegua | |
| PE-PAS | Pasco | Pasqu | Pasqu | Pasco Region | Cerro de PascoCerro de Pasco | |
| PE-PIU | Piura | Piwra | Piura | Piura Region | PiuraPiura | |
| PE-PUN | Puno | Punu | Puno | Puno Region | PunoPuno | |
| PE-SAM | San Martín | San Martin | San Martín | San Martín Region | MoyobambaMoyobamba | |
| PE-TAC | Tacna | Taqna | Takna | Tacna Region | TacnaTacna | |
| PE-TUM | Tumbes | Tumpis | Tumbes | Tumbes Region | TumbesTumbes | |
| PE-UCA | Ucayali | Ukayali | Ukayali | Ucayali Region | PucallpaPucallpa | |
| Metropolitan municipality1 | ||||||
| PE-LMA | Municipalidad Metropolitana de Lima | Lima llaqta suyu | Lima hatun llaqta | Lima Metropolitan Municipality | LimaLima | 2010 Added as a first-level unit of its own |
Codes and names in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara: ISO 3166-2:PE on the ISO Online Browsing Platform, read from the Wikipedia table that reproduces it with its change history, checked 28 October 2026. English names follow the Wikipedia article titles. Region capitals follow the standard regional list; Huacho as the seat of Lima Region is confirmed in the Wikipedia article Regions of Peru, checked the same day.
Spanish, Quechua and Aymara, and the flag of Peru
Spanish is the official language. Quechua, Aymara and the other indigenous languages are co-official in the areas where they predominate, and the ISO list follows that rule by printing every region in three languages. The Quechua and Aymara forms often look unfamiliar next to the Spanish ones: Cajamarca is Kashamarka in Quechua and Qajamarka in Aymara, Huancavelica is Wankawillka and Wankawelika, Ancash is Anqash and Ankashu.
Some names are translated. La Libertad, liberty, becomes Qispi kay in Quechua, and Madre de Dios is Mayutata. Lima Metropolitana is Lima llaqta suyu in Quechua and Lima hatun llaqta in Aymara. The capital city has its own ISO code, PE-LMA, separate from Lima Region with its capital at Huacho; ISO added it in Newsletter II-2 on 30 June 2010.
The flag is a vertical triband, red, white and red, defined in Article 49 of the Constitution. Congress adopted it on 25 February 1825, and it was modified in 1950. In the plain form shown here it is the Bandera Nacional; other versions carry the coat of arms.
Questions about Peru's names and regions
What is Peru called in Quechua?
Piruw. The official name in Quechua is Piruw Ripuwlika, in Aymara Piruwxa Ripuwlika.
What are the ISO codes of Peru?
PE (alpha-2), PER (alpha-3) and 604 (numeric). The regions have three-letter codes from PE-AMA for Amazonas to PE-UCA for Ucayali.
How many regions does Peru have?
ISO 3166-2 lists 26 first-level units: 25 regions, Callao among them, and the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima.
Is it Cusco or Cuzco?
Both. ISO lists Cusco as the name and Cuzco as a local variant; in Quechua the region is Qusqu.
Where does the name Peru come from?
The usual explanation is Birú, a ruler near the Bay of San Miguel in Panama, whose name the Spanish carried south to the Inca lands.