Maps lie, not deliberately, but inevitably. A map printed twenty years ago shows countries that no longer exist under those names, and misses countries that have since taken new ones. The political names of places shift with revolutions, independence movements, changes in government, and the long process of shedding colonial identities.
Since 1945, dozens of countries have changed their names, some for deeply political reasons, some to better reflect their people’s identity, and a few in ways that sparked international controversy. Understanding why countries rename themselves reveals something important about how national identity is constructed and contested.
Persia Became Iran (1935)
One of the most significant name changes of the 20th century was the shift from Persia to Iran, which took effect on 22 March 1935 at the request of Reza Shah Pahlavi.
According to historian Homa Katouzian of Oxford University, the name “Iran” was always the name Iranians used for their own country, it derives from the ancient word “Aryan” and means “land of the Aryans” in Old Persian. “Persia” was the name used by Greeks and Europeans, derived from the province of Pars (Fars), which happened to be where the empire the Greeks first encountered was centred.
Reza Shah’s motivations were multiple. According to historian Ervand Abrahamian, the name change was partly about asserting a distinct national identity, partly about aligning with a pan-Aryan nationalist movement that had some political currency in the 1930s, and partly about moving away from the “Persia” label that foreigners had imposed.
Today, both names remain familiar, people still speak of Persian culture, Persian cats, Persian rugs, and the Persian language. But the country is internationally recognised as Iran.
Ceylon Became Sri Lanka (1972)
Ceylon, the name used by British colonial authorities, became the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on 22 May 1972, when the country adopted a new republican constitution.
According to historian K.M. de Silva, the name “Ceylon” was derived from a Portuguese corruption of “Sinhala,” the name of the island’s majority ethnic group. The name had been used by Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonial rulers for over 450 years.
“Sri Lanka” comes from Sanskrit: “Sri” meaning resplendent or holy, and “Lanka” meaning island. The name change was part of a broader movement by Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike to shed the colonial identity and reassert the island’s pre-colonial cultural heritage.
The change has not been without controversy. Some Tamil residents of Sri Lanka, members of the country’s largest ethnic minority, noted that while the name “Ceylon” was an outsider imposition, “Sri Lanka” and its Sinhala-language resonance was itself a marker of ethnic dominance. The name change occurred in the same constitutional revision that also made Sinhala the sole official language, contributing to ethnic tensions that escalated in subsequent decades.
Rhodesia Became Zimbabwe (1980)
The country that is today Zimbabwe underwent a remarkable naming transformation rooted in the politics of decolonisation. The territory was named Rhodesia after British colonial administrator Cecil Rhodes, a name that, to most of its African population, was a direct symbol of colonial subjugation.
According to historian Terence Ranger of Oxford University, after the predominantly white Rhodesian government made an illegal unilateral declaration of independence from Britain in 1965, the country went through several transitional names, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe Rhodesia, and briefly Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, before becoming simply Zimbabwe on 18 April 1980, when Robert Mugabe’s government came to power following internationally recognised elections.
“Zimbabwe” derives from a Shona phrase, “dzimba dze mabwe,” meaning “houses of stone”, a reference to the Great Zimbabwe ruins, the remarkable stone city built by the Shona people between the 11th and 15th centuries, which had long been dismissed or misattributed by colonial scholars reluctant to credit African civilisation with the achievement.
The name was a deliberate cultural and political reclamation, connecting the new nation to its pre-colonial heritage and rejecting the identity imposed by colonial rule.
Burma Became Myanmar (1989)
In 1989, the military junta that had seized power in Burma the previous year officially changed the country’s name to Myanmar. The city of Rangoon was simultaneously renamed Yangon.
The name change was, from the beginning, controversial, and remains so in ways that illuminate how country names can themselves become political statements.
According to linguist and Burma specialist Patricia Herbert, both “Burma” and “Myanmar” derive from the same word, they are simply formal and informal versions of the same Burmese term for the country. “Myanmar” is the more literary, formal usage; “Burma” the colloquial form.
The dispute arose because many democratic opposition figures, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, refused to use “Myanmar” on the grounds that it was imposed by an illegitimate military government without a democratic mandate. The United States and United Kingdom governments long used “Burma” for this reason, while the United Nations and most Asian governments used “Myanmar.”
As of the mid-2010s, “Myanmar” had become the broadly accepted international name, though the 2021 military coup reignited the political dimension of the naming debate for many observers.
Swaziland Became Eswatini (2018)
In April 2018, on the 50th anniversary of Swaziland’s independence, King Mswati III announced that the country would henceforth be known as Eswatini, making it one of the most recent country name changes in the world.
According to the king’s own explanation, reported widely by Reuters and the BBC, “Swaziland” was a colonial-era hybrid: “Swazi” in English plus “land” in English, creating a name that mixed two languages. “Eswatini” means “land of the Swazis” in the SiSwati language, the same meaning, but entirely in the indigenous language.
The change was also partly motivated by the fact that “Swaziland” was frequently confused with Switzerland by people unfamiliar with both countries, a geographic confusion with real bureaucratic consequences.
Eswatini is one of the world’s last absolute monarchies, and the name change was a royal decree rather than a democratic process, a fact noted by some commentators alongside the announcement.
Macedonia Became North Macedonia (2019)
One of the most diplomatically complex name changes in recent history was the transformation of the Republic of Macedonia into the Republic of North Macedonia, which came into effect in February 2019.
According to the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Politics, the dispute arose from the fact that “Macedonia” is also the name of a northern region of Greece. The Greek government had objected for decades to its northern neighbour using the name “Macedonia” without qualification, arguing it implied a territorial claim to the Greek region and appropriated Greek historical and cultural heritage, including the legacy of Alexander the Great.
The 2019 Prespa Agreement, brokered by the United Nations and European mediators, resolved the dispute by adding “North” to the country’s name. In exchange, Greece agreed to support North Macedonia’s applications to join NATO and the European Union. North Macedonia joined NATO in 2020.
The name change was controversial within North Macedonia itself, where many citizens felt the renaming was an unjust concession to Greek pressure. A 2018 referendum on the name change passed with about 91 percent in favour, but with only 37 percent turnout, falling short of the threshold required for the result to be constitutionally binding. The change was ultimately passed through parliament.
Other Notable Name Changes
Zaire to Democratic Republic of Congo (1997)
The name “Zaire” had been imposed by long-time dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1971 as part of his “Authenticité” campaign to replace colonial names with African ones. When Mobutu was overthrown in 1997, the country reverted to “Democratic Republic of Congo”, reclaiming the name that predated Mobutu’s renaming but also, notably, the name of a colonial-era territory.
Cambodia → Khmer Republic → Kampuchea → Cambodia
The country went through three names in rapid succession between 1970 and 1989, each reflecting a different government’s grip on power. According to historian Ben Kiernan of Yale University, “Kampuchea” was the name used by the Khmer Rouge — and its abandonment after the fall of that regime was a deliberate effort to move away from the associations the name carried.
Czechoslovakia split into Czech Republic and Slovakia (1993)
Not a renaming but a peaceful dissolution. The Czech Republic later officially adopted “Czechia” as its short-form name in 2016, partly because “Czech Republic” was considered unwieldy in English and in international sports contexts.
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Ethan Brooks is a journalist with over 11 years of experience, specializing in finance, politics, and breaking news. He delivers timely, accurate reporting on market trends, economic developments, and major political events, helping readers stay informed on the stories that matter most.
