"Oriental Republic of Uruguay" and other weird official state names

[Blue3]

What are some official state names that seem weird to you?


For example, Uruguay is really the "Oriental Republic of Uruguay", despite being between Brazil and Argentina (and unlike other South American nations, there is NOT a strong Hindu/Asian majority or plurality here... which is another weird fact that most people don't know about some countries in Latin America and the Pacific).

Of course, there's the classic and so ironic "Democratic People's Republic of Korea"... so long and so wrong.

And on a domestic level, in the USA, RI is really "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."


What are some more?

[DanPrazeres]

It's beacuse of the East of Plate River.

[Gunnar Larsson]

According to Wikipedia it is "Eastern" in English (as the Spanish word "Oriental" is used in that meaning), which makes more sense given the context.

Not sure if it fits your question, but I find it quite amusing that the "Calif" bit in "California" likely is related to "caliph" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calafia). It is hardly an utopia for ISIS and their kind..

New Zealand is another candidate as it was named after Zeeland, not Zealand..

[Antonio the Sixth]

Not sure if it fits your question, but I find it quite amusing that the "Calif" bit in "California" likely is related to "caliph" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calafia). It is hardly an utopia for ISIS and their kind..

Now that's a caliphate I can get behind!

[Hash]

I believe Uruguay's name has something to do with its colonial name, Banda Oriental del Uruguay - eastern bank of the Uruguay (river), which is the river forming Uruguay's western border.

[Famous Mortimer]

Plurinational State of Bolivia

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

People's Republic of Bangladesh (not that unusual of a name but weird since they aren't Communist)

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (a very partisan name that half the country wants to change)

Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (doesn't exist anymore)

United Mexican States

Co-operative Republic of Guyana

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

The ease with which the dictatorial central government of the Russian Federation creates and abolishes subdivisional structures and offices has got to mean it counts.

[Simfan34]

Do people what to change Sri Lanka's long name? I know they've been trying to amend the constitution buy I could never find any reference to an official name change. I would thought it would have been on the table.

[SATW]

Why do we say THE Ukraine? Is that just an English thing? Do people elsewhere say, "I'm going to Ukraine" without the "the"?

I understand the Bahamas, the United States, the Phillipines, etc. but THE Ukraine always stood out to me.


Also, I noticed that Gambia is listed as "The Gambia", but I've never heard anyone use the definite article in front.

http://time.com/12597/the-ukraine-or-ukraine/ here's an interesting piece on the issue.

[Famous Mortimer]

Ukraine is officially just Ukraine. Saying "the Ukraine" is something Ukrainian nationalists get very mad about. It's considered a pro-Russian thing and it was more commonly used when Ukraine was part of the USSR.

Ukraine means borderlands. For some reason, Ukrainian nationalists think saying "The borderlands" implies Ukraine is part of Russia but just saying "borderlands" doesn't. I think both kind of imply it though but whatever.

[ag]

Why do we say THE Ukraine? Is that just an English thing? Do people elsewhere say, "I'm going to Ukraine" without the "the"?

I understand the Bahamas, the United States, the Phillipines, etc. but THE Ukraine always stood out to me.


Also, I noticed that Gambia is listed as "The Gambia", but I've never heard anyone use the definite article in front.

Actually, Ukrainians insist on dropping the "the" in English. Of course, Ukrainian itself has no articles.

Nor does Russian: yet,there is a similar argument about Ukraine in Russian. Traditionally, in Russian people would say "on Ukraine" when they meant either "in Ukraine" or "to Ukraine" ("na Ukraine/na Ukrainu" vs. "v Ukraine/v Ukrainu") and "off Ukraine" wheny they meant "from Ukraine" ("s Ukrainy" vs. "iz Ukrainy").  Ukrainians are mad about this. Before the war I was of the traditionalist opinion about this quirk of the Russian language, but, of course, ever since Russia invaded, it also took away my ability to insist on the traditional usage. Though it does not sound natural, I am doing my best to keep to "v Ukrainu/iz Ukrainy" now.

[Јas]

United Provinces of the River Plate

[Famous Mortimer]

Cambodia under Pol Pot was just "Democratic Kampuchea" I guess that was pretty weird as well.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Remember Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)?

[Crumpets]

Some outdated/defunct ones:

The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
The Great Republic of Rough and Ready
The Far Eastern Republic
Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus or Republic of the Mountaineers
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs
Islands of Refreshment
The Republic of Indian Stream or Indian Stream Republic
Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia
Bophuthatswana
New Netherland - Mostly just weird because they use the singular instead of the plural
German South-West Africa
Congo Free State - If we're going for irony
United States of the Ionian Islands
Samo's Realm - If the Czech Republic is looking for a better name than "Czechia," they should consider going back to this.
The Golden Horde - Always thought this sounded odd
Republic of the Seven United Netherlands
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta - Not exactly outdated, but not what it used to be.
Holy Roman Empire - I mean, really?
Mthwakazi
Empire of Great Fulo
Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic

[Vosem]

A little bit that ag forgot to mention about the reason Ukrainian nationalists are mad about Russians using "na Ukraine" rather than "v Ukraine" is that the Russian word "Ukraina" is derived from the word kray, or edge, and related words are okraina ("borderland"), or the Serbian word "krajina" that was used as the name for a Balkan country ("frontier"). The expression "na Ukraine" derives from the expression "na krayu" (to which there is a literal equivalent in English: "on the edge"), which implies that Ukraine is the edge of something (historically, the Soviet Union/Russian Empire/Russian cultural sphere). Because Ukrainian nationalists see Ukraine as its own separate phenomenon, they want Ukraine to take the normal preposition for a country ("v", not "na").

The reason English used to use/sometimes still uses the expression the Ukraine is totally as a translation of the Russian (Ukraine is in this way interpreted not as a place/proper noun but as a geographic description/common noun, and therefore it needs an article), so there is an exact parallel for the linguistic debate between the Russian and English.

[homelycooking]

A number of Massachusetts municipalities are officially and confusingly named "The Town of X" even though they are cities in their form of government.

Similarly, 19 Connecticut towns have established city governments that have effectively superseded town government, even though the town government was never formally abolished. Hartford, for instance, has an official known as "Town and City Clerk" even though the state capital is known officially as "The City of Hartford". Theoretically there exists the governmental entity "The Town of Hartford" which has the same boundaries as "The City of Hartford", but the administration of the Town is carried out by the City.

[Hnv1]

Some outdated/defunct ones:

The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
The Great Republic of Rough and Ready
The Far Eastern Republic
Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus or Republic of the Mountaineers
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs
Islands of Refreshment
The Republic of Indian Stream or Indian Stream Republic
Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia
Bophuthatswana
New Netherland - Mostly just weird because they use the singular instead of the plural
German South-West Africa
Congo Free State - If we're going for irony
United States of the Ionian Islands
Samo's Realm - If the Czech Republic is looking for a better name than "Czechia," they should consider going back to this.
The Golden Horde - Always thought this sounded odd
Republic of the Seven United Netherlands
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta - Not exactly outdated, but not what it used to be.
Holy Roman Empire - I mean, really?
Mthwakazi
Empire of Great Fulo
Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic

The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of St. Stephen
or as most people know it "the Austro-Hungarian Empire"

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The weirdest ever name for a state was, of course, the East India Company.

[Blue3]

A number of Massachusetts municipalities are officially and confusingly named "The Town of X" even though they are cities in their form of government.

Similarly, 19 Connecticut towns have established city governments that have effectively superseded town government, even though the town government was never formally abolished. Hartford, for instance, has an official known as "Town and City Clerk" even though the state capital is known officially as "The City of Hartford". Theoretically there exists the governmental entity "The Town of Hartford" which has the same boundaries as "The City of Hartford", but the administration of the Town is carried out by the City.

Any difference between a town and a city depends on the state, I think. One does not have an inherently different form of government than the other. They're rather interchangeable, with a city simply being bigger, unless state law says there's actual legal consequences to being designated as one and not the other.

[ingemann]

The Principality of Fürstenberg (in German Fürstentum Fürstenberg) directly translated it's the Principality of Prince Mountain.

In the same neighbourhood we find the Margraviate of Baden-Baden (and the city of the same name). Original it was the Margraviate of Baden named after the local town of Baden, later to distinct the town from other towns named Baden (just as there's more places named Frankfurt in Germany too) in Germany, the town was called Baden-Baden. As the Margraviate was partitioned between different family lines, they was named after the different capitals (like Baden-Durlach), but even the Germans wasn't willing to call a state for Baden-Baden-Baden.

[DavidB.]

The ease with which the dictatorial central government of the Russian Federation creates and abolishes subdivisional structures and offices has got to mean it counts.

"Russian Federation" is a good one in itself imo, as Russia's "federalism" is purely cosmetical

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

The ease with which the dictatorial central government of the Russian Federation creates and abolishes subdivisional structures and offices has got to mean it counts.

"Russian Federation" is a good one in itself imo, as Russia's "federalism" is purely cosmetical

That's what I was getting at.

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

I like very much history of Angevin dynasty as my favorite king of Poland was from that dynasty so for me that name is not weird but generally most often people wonder where the hell is second Sicily.

[Bacon King]

"Nation of Brunei, Abode of Peace"