What countries changed their name during their history?

Macedonia, which can become the Republic of Northern Macedonia if its citizens do so in today's referendum, would not be the first country to change its name.

Croatian media report on several countries that changed their name after gaining independence, in which East Pakistan was named Bangladesh, Ceylon is called Sri Lanka, Dutch Eastern India changed its name to Indonesia, and Rhodesia in Zimbabwe.

Among such examples is the change of Swaziland's name to esvain. In the case of the 50th anniversary of the independence of this former British protectorate, King Msvati III in April of this year announced that the country would return to its original name, Evatini.

“We will not be the only country in Africa that has preserved the name from the colonial era”, he said.

It is said that the new name of the state means the “Svaziland site” in the local language.

Zair was renamed to the Democratic Republic of Congo in May 1997 after dictator Mobut Sese Seko fell from power. Former Congo Belge, who became independent in 1960 by the name of the Republic of Congo of the same name, Mobut decided to rename him to Zair in 1971.

It is claimed that the ruling Burmese junta decided in 1989 to call the country Myanmar in order to break off its colonial past, Kosova Prees broadcast.

The opposition led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi continued to use the name Burma, by most people. The US and several other Western countries have refused to use the name Myanmar for years, but this is slowly changing after a democratic transition in 2012.

The Upper Volta, a French colony that gained independence in 1958, changed its name to Burkino Faso in August 1984, since then President Thomas Sankar did not want the state name to be colonial. Burkina Faso means “the land of righteous people” in the country's most widely distributed dialect.

Cambodia was renamed by the Kmerit Red regime in Kampuccia after coming to power in 1975. It's a transliteration of the name Cambodian to the gentile, and the original name was returned in 1989.

Fifteen years after gaining independence from France, Dahomey changed his name to Benin in 1975, according to a powerful kingdom that spread to West Africa from the 13th to the 19th century before colonization.