28 Countries That Changed Their Names

This video was written, animated, and narrated by Nerd Robot. It's not permitted to download or re-upload this video.

[christosmalamas]

Soviet Union and Yugoslavia didn't change their names. They just collapsed and new countries emerged.

[virgiesipat]

Yugoslavia didn't changed to Serbia ..it was dissolved into multiple nations...not only becoming Serbia....It is now the countries of Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia

[Jewelmen]

British Guiana = Guyana
Dutch Guiana = Suriname
French Guinea = Guinea
Portuguese Guinea = Guinea Bissau
Spanish Guinea = Equatorial Guinea

[legendasrbije]

The Soviet Union was not renamed Russia, but split into 15 states. And Yugoslavia did not disintegrate in 1991, it existed for many more years, included Serbia and Montenegro, then was renamed the Union State of Serbia and Montenegro, and only then was divided into a separate Serbia and a separate Montenegro.

[camronbay]

Love the background music. Good info on the names of the countries. Now I know why I don't hear the old names I used to know.

[nilweerasinha]

Sri Lanka- Sri-for the sacred Sanskrit letter, Lanka-the indigenous ancient country name used for some centuries.

[UnitedBengal]

Actually BANGLADESH means “The land of the Bengalis”. “Bangla” is the language and ethnicity and “Desh” means Land.

[quantumaction]

I think the former name of Tanzania was Tanganyika - Zanzibar is just an island off the coast.

[johnreid]

Reading at these comments, Nerd Robot didn't do his homework.

[pedrorondon]

In 1999 Venezuela changed its name from "Republic of Venezuela" to "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" to reflect the historic importance of Simon Bolivar, the country´s Liberator.

[JonathonV]

Careful. You said that Zaire became Congo, but it’s more specifically the Democratic Republic of the Congo, because the Republic of Congo to its north is a separate nation. Often people will call the two countries “Congo-Kinshasa” and “Congo-Brazzaville” after their respective capital cities.

[zuraorokamono]

I don't think Russia belongs here.
It's not a name change, Russia simply emerged as a sovereign nation out of the collapse of the Soviet Union. During its existance, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was a things which became the Russian Federation in 1991. It's not a revertion to a historic name, the name never went away at all.

[manfredthiele]

Beautiful presentation, but one suggestion: Could you make a sign on the map of the nation, which you introduce? I don`t know every country and it would be helpful for my orientation...

[Tauruswithouttherus]

Actually, Soviet union was renamed to Kazakhstan. The reason why this happened, it’s because Kazakhstan was the last member of the USSR.

[bajvk]

This is a very valuable history tool. Great video and great information to have. 👍🏾.

[persianrezairani]

My friend, Iran never changed its name! People of Iran always referred to their conutry as Iran. Western countries referred to Iran as Persia. Reza Shah, just announced to the world that they must drop Persia and use Iran. So, that was not a name chage, it was only reference to Iran by others that was changed.

[cahittaskin]

Turkey did not change its name. Just took the decision of not using English version of its name in international affairs.

[sirsirosariya]

Iran NEVER changed its name. Only the west called Iran “Persia” because that’s what the Greeks called Iran. The country of Iran’s name has been IRAN as far back as 5, 000 to 8, 000 years ago if not longer.

[SoundAsleepSpace]

Australia was called "New Holland" before 1824

[HellMac]

Ethiopia is the greek name of the land, not the indigenous one. It's found in homeric and hesiodian epics. Aιθίοψ (ethiops-ethiopian) meant "sun-burned figure man".