In September 2023, India's renaming of "Bharat" became a hot topic around the world. However, India is not the only country that has changed its name. In this article, we will review some of the countries that have changed their names.
1. The beginning and end of India's change of country name
The G20 summit opened in New Delhi, the capital of India, on September 9. The invitation to the banquet issued by the Indian Presidency to the leaders of various countries, and the title of President Murmu has been changed from "Indian" President to "Bharat".
Invitation to the G20 summit from Indian President Mohamo Murmur
When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a speech at the G20 summit, the English name of the country in front of the table was also marked as "Bharat" instead of "India". The news of this name change has attracted widespread attention. "Bharat" is also translated as "Bharat" and in English as "Bharat".
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Bharata is from the epic Mahabharata, which literally means "to bear/carry" and actually means "one who seeks light or wisdom". India has long been known as "Bharata" in history, and "India" is just a term since British colonization, full of colonial colors. In the Indian Constitution, the words "Bharata" and "India" are interchangeable as the two official names of the country. Article 1 of the constitution states that "India, or 'Bharata,' is a federal state".
Mahabharata
In recent years, Hindu nationalist forces such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have frequently used the term "Bharata" in place of the term "India" on many occasions. In the eyes of Hindu nationalists, the more Hindu "Bharata" replaces the colonial "India" as a better indication of the centrality of Hinduism.
2. Countries that changed their names after independence
Coincidentally, many countries throughout history have changed their names for different reasons. One of them was the renaming of the country after independence. Such as Zimbabwe, the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Zambia.
After independence, it was renamed the country
3. Decolonization of the renamed country
The decolonization was also an important motivation for changing the name of the country. For example, Burkina Faso, Benin, Sri Lanka, Madagascar. For similar reasons, Myanmar's English name has been changed from Burma to Myanmar.
Decolonize countries that change their names
Fourth, reshape the country's image and change its name
In order to reshape the country's image, it is also an important reason for the change of the country's name. The most typical is Turkey. Turkey's original name in English is "turkey" and means "something that has failed badly" or "stupid person". Therefore, Turkish officials demanded that the name of the country be changed to "Türkiye". "Türkiye" means "homeland of the Turks", and the root word "Türk" means "Turkic", which is in line with the Turkish identity of their Turkic descendants.
In addition, the Netherlands has also changed its national emblem in order to enhance its national image. The traditional national emblem of the Netherlands is a tulip pattern with the word "Holland", so "Holland" has become the main name of the Netherlands. In fact, the official name of the Netherlands in English is "The Kingdom of the Netherlands", which means "Low Kingdom", and the literal translation is "Kingdom of the Netherlands", and "Netherlands" is only the name of two of the country's 12 provinces, namely the province of North Holland, where the capital Amsterdam is located, and the province of South Holland, where Rotterdam and The Hague are located.
Map of the Netherlands
In order to more accurately represent the country as a whole, the coat of arms of the Netherlands was changed to the words NL and Netherlands in the shape of tulips to replace the old coat of arms.
The Netherlands was changed to a new coat of arms
4. Strengthen the national identity of the country that has changed its name
Emphasizing national identity is also the impetus for the country's name change. For example, the English name of Eswatini was changed from "Swaziland" to "Eswatini". Ivory Coast was changed to Côte d'Ivoire transliterated from French, and its English name "Ivory Coast" was changed to "Cte d'Ivoire" in French. In 1937, in order to highlight the identity of Aryan descendants, Iran changed the name of the country from Persia to Iran, and its English name "Persia" became "Iran".
5. Countries that have repeatedly changed their names
Due to regime change and other reasons, some countries may also change their names repeatedly. For example, after the Congo was established independently in 1960, the country was named "Congo", and in 1971, the name of the country was changed to "Zaire" for decolonization, and its French name was "Zaïre", and in 1997, the old regime was overthrown, and the name of the country was restored to "Congo", and the English name was "Congo".
In order to strengthen the status of the main ethnic group of the Thai people, Thailand has also repeatedly changed its name. Between June 23, 1939 and September 8, 1945, Marshal Luang Phibun Somkhon changed the name of Siam to "Thailand" and the English name from "Siam" to "Thailand", with pan-Thai nationalist overtones. On September 8, 1945, Thailand was renamed the "Kingdom of Siam". On May 11, 1949, Siam was officially renamed "Thailand".
6. Countries that have been forced to change their names
The above-mentioned changes in country names were all voluntary, and many countries in history have been forced to change their country names. For example, the English name of the Czech Republic was originally "the Czech Republic", but the original name was changed to "Czechia" because it was easy to misspell.
The name change in North Macedonia is more complicated. In 1991, Macedonia gained independence from Yugoslavia and was named the Republic of Macedonia. But in the northern part of the Greek state, there is also a region called the province of Macedonia. Historically, Macedonia was part of the ancient Greek cultural tradition. Based on this, the Greeks protested and imposed an economic blockade on the Republic of Macedonia. In order to accommodate the mood of the Greeks, the Republic of Macedonia joined the United Nations in 1993 under the name "The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". However, on the map, the Republic of Macedonia or Macedonia is generally still indicated. Greece refused to allow the Republic of Macedonia to join NATO and the European Union due to a dispute over the name of the country. In exchange for Greece's support for its accession to NATO and the European Union, on February 12, 2019, the "Republic of Macedonia" was officially renamed the "Republic of North Macedonia".
7. Countries whose names have not been successfully renamed
In addition to the above-mentioned countries that have successfully changed their names, there are also some countries that have failed to change their names. In 2019, then-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte proposed changing the country's name to "Mahalika." "Mahalika" in Filipino refers to the samurai class, nobles, or freemen of the feudal era. Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos also made the same proposal. But the proposals of both presidents were unsuccessful.
In 2021, the Māori Party of New Zealand petitioned to change the country's name from English "New Zealand" to Māori Aotearoa, but the party was divided over the issue and was unsuccessful. There are complex historical, political and cultural factors behind the change of a country's name, and these changes can profoundly affect the image and status of a country. Let's stay tuned to see which countries will decide to change their names in the future for various reasons.
New Zealand Māori Party