A random thought that has been floating around in my mind
This has little to do with anything...
The vast majority of countries have official names that consist of two parts: the "official title" and the "geographical name". For example, with official titles in bold and geographical names in italics:
Federal Republic of Germany
State of Israel
Republic of Angola
People's Republic of China
Federated States of Micronesia
Independent State of Papua New Guinea
Principality of Andorra
Most Serene Republic of San Marino
Union of the Comoros
Commonwealth of Australia
United Republic of Tanzania
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
You get the idea. (And yes, San Marino actually is a Most Serene Republic.)
Occasionally, the geographical name comes first (or somewhere in there) as an adjective:
French Republic
United Mexican States
Argentine Republic
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Hellenic Republic
Swiss Confederation
Syrian Arab Republic
A few states have no official titles at all:
Antigua and Barbuda
Belize
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mongolia
Ukraine
Now, most of these countries don't go around using their official names all the time. True, a few countries do, and have no way to shorten their national names:
Central African Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo (though that's of course only because "Congo" is already taken)
Czech Republic
United Arab Emirates (I actually have no clue which part counts as official and which part counts as geographic in the UAE's name. The people there are Emirati, so I'm inclined to list Emirates as the geographic part, but there are Emirates besides the ones in the UAE.)
Except for those weirdos, though, most countries do have "short forms." For the vast majority of countries with long-form names that can be shortened, you use the geographic name, switching the adjective to a noun if necessary and sometimes adding a direction. For example, those above become:
Germany
Israel
Angola
China
Micronesia
Papua New Guinea
Andorra
San Marino
Comoros
Australia
Tanzania
Luxembourg
North Korea
Afghanistan
France
Mexico
Argentina
Libya
Greece
Switzerland
Syria
For two countries, though (leaving aside the UAE for the moment as a wacko), the short form is instead the official part, while the geographic part is the bit that's dropped. Any guesses as to which?
United States of America -> United States
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland -> United Kingdom
I'm pretty sure these are the only countries that do this, either when we're looking at English names or when we're looking at what natives of each country call their homeland in their main language.
I suppose there are reasons for it: "America" can be slightly confusing, since it's also the continents, while "Great Britain and Northern Ireland" is cumbersome, while just "Great Britain" (which is actually used in other languages, and even seen occasionally in English, though generally not in an official capacity) leaves out NI, and you don't want to offend people with guns. But it does seem rather weird.
...and in such ways does Cody's mind work after midnight.
The vast majority of countries have official names that consist of two parts: the "official title" and the "geographical name". For example, with official titles in bold and geographical names in italics:
Federal Republic of Germany
State of Israel
Republic of Angola
People's Republic of China
Federated States of Micronesia
Independent State of Papua New Guinea
Principality of Andorra
Most Serene Republic of San Marino
Union of the Comoros
Commonwealth of Australia
United Republic of Tanzania
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
You get the idea. (And yes, San Marino actually is a Most Serene Republic.)
Occasionally, the geographical name comes first (or somewhere in there) as an adjective:
French Republic
United Mexican States
Argentine Republic
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Hellenic Republic
Swiss Confederation
Syrian Arab Republic
A few states have no official titles at all:
Antigua and Barbuda
Belize
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mongolia
Ukraine
Now, most of these countries don't go around using their official names all the time. True, a few countries do, and have no way to shorten their national names:
Central African Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo (though that's of course only because "Congo" is already taken)
Czech Republic
United Arab Emirates (I actually have no clue which part counts as official and which part counts as geographic in the UAE's name. The people there are Emirati, so I'm inclined to list Emirates as the geographic part, but there are Emirates besides the ones in the UAE.)
Except for those weirdos, though, most countries do have "short forms." For the vast majority of countries with long-form names that can be shortened, you use the geographic name, switching the adjective to a noun if necessary and sometimes adding a direction. For example, those above become:
Germany
Israel
Angola
China
Micronesia
Papua New Guinea
Andorra
San Marino
Comoros
Australia
Tanzania
Luxembourg
North Korea
Afghanistan
France
Mexico
Argentina
Libya
Greece
Switzerland
Syria
For two countries, though (leaving aside the UAE for the moment as a wacko), the short form is instead the official part, while the geographic part is the bit that's dropped. Any guesses as to which?
United States of America -> United States
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland -> United Kingdom
I'm pretty sure these are the only countries that do this, either when we're looking at English names or when we're looking at what natives of each country call their homeland in their main language.
I suppose there are reasons for it: "America" can be slightly confusing, since it's also the continents, while "Great Britain and Northern Ireland" is cumbersome, while just "Great Britain" (which is actually used in other languages, and even seen occasionally in English, though generally not in an official capacity) leaves out NI, and you don't want to offend people with guns. But it does seem rather weird.
...and in such ways does Cody's mind work after midnight.