I've contemplated asking this for a while now.

This may stem from my lack of knowledge, but in my eyes certain weapons are associated with certain cultures/people. Axes and the like with Vikings or Germanic peoples, and Egypt (or whatever the region would have been known as) and things like the Kopesh.

Does this arise for a practical purpose? Did they design these weapons specifically to overcome some problem? Or did they appropriate the weapon from tools they've used. Was it something cultural?

It seems like there should be a reason that certain regions used certain weapons provided I'm correct that they did in the first place, for all i know this could be a pop-history understanding that plays out in popular culture but is in no way historically accurate.

I'm not particularly sure what time period specifically I'd like an answer for, but I imagine the Viking age and what ever age the Kopesh was used is what I had in mind, and explanations as to why they were used as weapons.