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What's In A Name? More Than Just A Name

Why do countries change their names, and how long does it take for the name change to take hold?

What's In A Name? More Than Just A Name
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Whats In A Name More Than Just A Name
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The state of Kerala saw the CM P Vijayan move a resolution to change the name to Keralam. Post that there has been chatter about Bharat being used as a primary name of India. Though both the names are used interchangeably and technically it will not be a name change but for the rest of the world, India carries a better recall. There have been a few significant name changes in the world in the past.


In 2018 the tiny landlocked country of Swaziland chose to be eSwatini. In 2016 Czechoslovakia became Czechia. In January 2019 the country formally known as Macedonia was recognised by its neighbour Greece as North Macedonia and thereby ending a 25-year-old dispute on name change. The name change recognition paved the way for various international blocs. Similarly in the 1970's Ceylon changed its name to Sri Lanka. Zimbabwe changed its name from Rhodesia. The military junta of Burma went in for a name rejig to Myanmar after one of their early regime changes.


So, why do countries change their names?

In case of eSwatini, and Sri Lanka the primary reason was to reassert a cultural identity, and work through its colonial past. However for Czechia it was to have a shorter more easier name to promote it's global brand just like Slovakia is used by the Slovak Republic.


Sometimes historical names last longer than they were used for, a case in point being Formosa the republic lasted shorter than the multiple identities it used for being the factory to the world. The question that geographers, administrators, and other interested people have is how long does it take for the name change to take hold?


The name change takes sometime to take effect. Researchers utilising Ngram viewer tried to construct a possible timeline of how long it takes for the name change to take effect, they found that some name changes take faster to take hold than others. Zimbabwe took less than 5 years for the name change to take place and gain acceptance, in case of Sri Lanka it took over a decade for the name place to be officially recognised the confusion over Burma and Myanmar still persists, Formosa is still an acceptable name in certain parts of the world though it may have more to do with a curious mix of factors related to historical and geographical features.


The name change relies on a tacit understanding of various factors including but not limited to a shared sense of history, and an identity rooted in a curious geo-political identity mix for when name changes, more than just the name changes.

Image Credit: Ishikawa Toraji, http://naes.tnc.edu.tw/~nanying/

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