@arcepi apparently there is a Wikipedia page entirely dedicated to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Austria

If I understand well, it originally was the eastern border of whatever stood at its West at the time.

Which also reveals: the Romans called it Noricum, 'according to Heer, no- or nor- meant "east" or "easterns"' (and not North, of course)

So it looks they have just been trying to confuse people about cardinal points for 2500 years...

"This has led to much confusion [citation needed]"