>So literally at some point a German guy came to France and asked "What's that?" and it made it into being the standard word for it in the language

Makes me think of the various rivers Avon -- so named because Roman cartographers, labelling rivers, accost Celts about what that there is called. The Roman expects a name, but the Celt replies with the word for river in his language: "avon". Is there a term for this? Or better still, a curated list on Wikipedia?