There are a few countries that changed their names for some reason. You are going to see what are they.



First Bolivia, a country in the middle of South America, Bolivia got its name from Simon Bolivar, a famous leader in the South American wars of independence against the Spanish when it got its independence. Bolivia's leaders considered uniting it with recently independent Peru, or with the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, a short-lived state in the region. However, they decided to go with the creation of a fully independent new state in honor of the man who helped them achieve independence. They named the country the Republic of Bolivar. However, this name only lasted for a few days. A while later, a congressman from the country proposed a change he stated that If from Romulus came Rome, then from Bolivar should come to Bolivia a few months later, in October of 1825, the name change was made official. 


The interesting fact is that very recently, in 2009, a slight change was also made and change the official name of the country to the Plurinational Republic of Bolivia to recognize its various ethnicities, especially the indigenous population of the country.


This isn't technically a name change, it's more of a reinforcement of their actual name. Cape Verde Islands were uninhabited before the arrival of Europeans being discovered by the Genoese and the Portuguese in the 15th century. The Portuguese became their rulers until the country's independence in the 20th century and therefore named it in their language. However, the name is set to come from the nearby cap vert on the Senegalese coast, which the Portuguese also named after being green one can assume from the forest and being a cape.

 

We can also assume that when they discover the islands and settle them since they were nearby, they just used that same name, and the name has always stayed the same. Yet, there was an interesting event in 2013, a delegation to the UN requested the English-speaking world or the international community to refer to the country by its Portuguese name, and not translate the words to the English language. Therefore, instead of Cape Verde, it asks to be called the original Portuguese name of Colville. 


The north Czech Republic story is really interesting. You're probably thinking we’re going to talk about the change from Czechoslovakia to the Czech Republic. But no, this is about the adoption of Czechia. Very recently, in 2013, the Czech government recommended the wider use officially of Shakya as a short version of the Czech Republic, and even more recently in 2016. They propose that this name should be fully implemented in all international contexts as the official name of the country. This is justified by the historical usage of this name. The region in which Czechia is located has been known as Bohemia for a long time. Since 2016 international institutions have applied the change on an official level. If you go to Google Maps right now, in English, the display name for the region is no longer the Czech Republic. It is instead Czechia.


The same thing happened with Ivory Coast, it was discovered by the Portuguese again and also by the French. At this time, European colonists have the habit of dividing these African provinces into coasts, depending on what item was more commonly traded there. In this case, the region traded a lot of ivory, and so it was named Ivory Coast, both in Portuguese and French. There were other regions known as Pepper Coast, Grain Coast, or Gold Coast, it just varies depending on what item was traded there. Ivory Coast is an interesting example of this because at times it was known under different names like coasts of teeth or coast of teeth, a name given by the Dutch to the local population, coast of the five stripes because of a type of cotton fabric that was traded their cost of wind amongst others but given that it was the French who retained rule of the region until its independence in 1960. The name Cote d'Ivoire was the one that lasted. The issue was that each country kept translating the name to their language, which may diplomatic and trade deals very problematic. And so, in 1986, the government declared that for all diplomatic purposes, the official name of the country would be called the VA in the original French. 



The Next one is Persia This is a really interesting one. That name change from Persia to Iran happened with the revolution the country had, in which the monarchy came to an end, and the Islamic Republic was implemented. And that's partially true. However, the story is a bit more complicated. Persia was the official name of Iran in the Western world, only before 1935 while the revolution took place in 1979. Even though the Western world called the country Persia, internally, the people of the region had called it differently since around 1000 BC. Names like Eden shard, Eden Zamin, or even actually, Iran had already been put into use. In 1935, the Iranian government simply decided to ask the international community to apply this change as well. And so, they did. However, during World War Two, to avoid confusion between them and Iraq, given the similar names Winston Churchill requested Iran, that only for the duration of the war, the diplomatic name of the country should revert to Persia, which they agreed to. 


After that, it seems that both names were acceptable and used interchangeably. And after the 1979 revolution, they decided to fully settle on Iran alone. Essentially, the main point of this or Persia is only the name of the country for the Western world. And Iranians had already been calling their country Iran for a long time until they decided to ask foreigners to do so as well. In Europe, the kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which then became Yugoslavia until its dismantling kingdom was a Balkan state formed in 1918. After World War One. It included the two previously independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro, as well as the Balkan regions of the previous Austro-Hungarian empire, which was torn apart after the war Dalmatia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, and Vojvodina. But just like the Austro Hungarians had, this new kingdom faced problems with each member nation with a lot of movements in each of them wanting their own independence.

And so, in 1929, in an attempt to fight these movements, King Alexander the first proclaimed a royal dictatorship and renamed the state Yugoslavia. The idea behind the name change was probably to merge all nations into a single one, creating a sense of national unity. Yugoslavia roughly translates to South Slav, which would be the common characteristic of all member countries. 



Moving to the Middle East, Jordan, Jordan had a slightly different name a few years ago, before 1949, it was known as the Emirate of trans Jordan or transgender Dania. It's interesting because, for a long time, it was sort of a no man's land. The British were in control of it, but they didn't want to associate it with their protectorate of Mandatory Palestine.

So, in 1946, it became the Hashemite Kingdom of trans Jordan. After 49. They just dropped the first half of the name and it became the Kingdom of Jordan. Trans Jordan would translate to be on the River Jordan, in this case, on the east side. For some reason, they decided to just be named Jordan after the river that runs in the region. 


After that, it seems that both names were acceptable and used interchangeably. And after the 1979 revolution, they decided to fully settle on Iran alone. Essentially, the main point of this or Persia is only the name of the country for the Western world. And Iranians had already been calling their country Iran for a long time until they decided to ask foreigners to do so as well. In Europe, the kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which then became Yugoslavia until its dismantling kingdom was a Balkan state formed in 1918. After World War One. It included the two previously independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro, as well as the Balkan regions of the previous Austro-Hungarian empire, which was torn apart after the war Dalmatia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, and Vojvodina. But just like the Austro Hungarians had, this new kingdom faced problems with each member nation with a lot of movements in each of them wanting their own independence.

And so, in 1929, in an attempt to fight these movements, King Alexander the first proclaimed a royal dictatorship and renamed the state Yugoslavia. The idea behind the name change was probably to merge all nations into a single one, creating a sense of national unity. Yugoslavia roughly translates to South Slav, which would be the common characteristic of all member countries. 


Now Ceylon, which is now known as Sri Lanka. Ceylon had existed as a kingdom for a long time, but in 1972, they decided to change their name to Sri Lanka. The name Ceylon is a transliteration of Ceylon, the name given by the Portuguese on that island, which was briefly under their control, it passed on to the Dutch and then finally to the British, who translated the name to Ceylon. Regardless, it was the name of the country for a long time, even for a while afterward independence from the British, but in 1972, they became a republic and they decided to change their name to Sri Lanka. The name change probably has to do with the desire to move away from European colonialism as well as the monarchy. Furthermore, Sri Lanka is an older name and closer to the indigenous names for the island. Ceylon is however still used by a lot of institutions until recently, such as the Bank of Ceylon, but Sri Lanka's government has decided to fully reform all these names and remove all references to the name Ceylon from public institutions.

 

Swaziland. This is the most recent country name change that we could find. And it happened in 2017. When Swaziland King Mswati the last African absolute monarch decided to change the name of the country to the kingdom of Eswatini. This name change was announced on the 20th anniversary of Swasey's independence, which also serve to celebrate the king’s 50th birthday. Apparently one of the reasons that the king wanted to change the name was that he said it caused foreigners to confuse it with Switzerland. Eswatini means Land of the Swazis, which is essentially the same name as it previously had, but we guess in their local language.