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Most sovereign states have alternative names. Some countries have also undergone name changes for political or other reasons. This article attempts to give all known alternative names and initialisms for all nations, countries, and sovereign states, in English and any predominant or official languages of the country in question.
Alpha-3 CodeDescriptionOther Name (s) Or Older Name (s)AFGIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan (de facto ...ALBRepublic of Albania (official, English), ...DZAPeople's Democratic Republic of Algeria ...ANDPrincipality of Andorra (official, ...List of alternative country names. Most countries of the world have alternative names. Some countries have also undergone name changes for political or other reasons. This article attempts to give all known alternative names and initialisms for all nations, countries and sovereign states, in English and any predominant or official languages of ...
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List of alternative country names. Most sovereign states have alternative names. Some countries have also undergone name changes for political or other reasons. This article attempts to give all known alternative names and initialisms for all nations, countries, and sovereign states, in English and any predominant or official languages of the ...
This article lists alternative names and initialisms for all nations, countries, and sovereign states, in English and predominant official languages. The list is organized alphabetically by country name. Some countries have undergone name changes for political or other reasons.
- North America
- South America
- Europe
- Asia
- Oceania
- Africa
Starting with the Great White North, Canada’s name is derived from the Indigenous Huron people. Kanata means village, or settlement, in the Iroquoian language. Meanwhile, The United States of Americawas named in honor of the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci is credited with correcting Columbus’ error, in which the latter mistook the New ...
Brazil’s name is actually shortened from Terra do Brasil (land of Brazil). The brazilwood tree, or pau-brasil, was valued highly in the early 16th century. It was used to produce red dyes for the European textile industry — hence the “red like an ember” moniker. Uruguay has a couple of meanings attached to it, the first being “Bird’s Tail” in refer...
The “Land of the Franks”, France, gets its namesake from the Latin word francia. This dates back even further to the Old German word franka, meaning brave, or fierce. There’s also a political angle to the name: King Louis V famously proclaimed that “France signifies freedom”. The exact origin for Germany is unknown, possibly because it was composed...
China’s English name comes from the Qin dynasty, the first unified and multinational state in Chinese history. Although the dynasty only existed between 221-207 BC, it had a profound and lasting influence on the country. A fascinating tidbit is that China’s name in fact borrows from the Persian language, and even Sanskrit. India’s name comes from G...
The Land Down Under of Australia is fairly geographical in its name, drawn from the Latin australis for “southern”. The explorer Matthew Flinders popularized the name as we know it in 1804, and “Australia” replaced “New Holland” as the official continent. The Māori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, which is most commonly defined as “the long white ...
The name Egypt comes from the Ancient Greek Aiguptos and Latin Ægyptus, and is also derived from hūt-kā-ptah (Temple of the Soul of Ptah). The ancient Egyptian name for the country was km.t (pronounced “kemet”), meaning “black land” likely for the fertile soils of the Nile valley. Today, Egypt’s official name is Jumhūrīyat Miṣr al-ʻArabīyah, or “Ar...
Nearly every country in the world has an official or formal name that is longer and more formal than its common name. For example, many country names actually begin with the prefix "Republic of," as seen in Republic of Italy, Republic of Colombia, Republic of Korea (South Korea). Alternately, many countries use the similar "Kingdom of," such as ...
See also: List of alternative country names. Please format entries as follows: for languages written in the Latin alphabet, write " Name (language)", for example, " Afeganistão (Portuguese)", and add it to the list according to English rules of alphabetical order.
