Czech Republic to Czechia

A country without a short name

The modern Czech state began on 1 January 1993, when the union with Slovakia was dissolved.^[1] At home it was Česká republika, and it also had a one-word short name, Česko, fixed that year in a national standard approved by the Czech Language Institute.^[2] English had no agreed equivalent, and the long official name gave rise to a series of unofficial short versions.^[3]

Why Czechia

The foreign ministry pointed out that Czechia is old: it first appeared in a Latin text in 1602, in English texts by 1841, and in the US press between 1918 and 1960 for the western part of Czechoslovakia. It ends in the same Latin -ia as Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, the historic lands that make up the country.^[2]

The alternatives were weaker. Czech is already the adjective, the language and the people; Czechland suggested the historic Czech Lands; Bohemia covers only one of the three lands. To the worry that Czechia sounds like Chechnya, the ministry answered that Austria and Australia, and Niger and Nigeria, manage.^[2]

“The name “Czechia” will not replace the full official name of the Czech Republic.”^[2]

Registered, not renamed

In May 2016 the government agreed, over some ministers’ objections about cost, to register Czechia with the UN, along with versions in other major languages, as the country’s official short name.^[3] The Czech Republic remains the formal name, and anyone may use either; nothing needed relabelling.^[2] Since then the government has promoted Czechia wherever people naturally use short names for other countries.^[1]