Countries deserve to be able to set the phonetic spellings they prefer. As someone whose family name got munged on ellis island because some pinhead found it easier to spell, I sympathize with this request.

But if I ever find myself in possession of a country, I'm going to call it xyzzy. Then every 90 days I'm going to change its spelling in accordance with security best practices. Of course, it will be unnecessary because upon the first utterance, the speaker will find themselves in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.

And then I will rule the world. Bwahahahahah.

There is no country that calls itself...

Germany
Spain
Italy
Greece
Poland
Korea
Japan

...the list goes on and on.

So bizarre that they want to change an English name, when we do not even come close to most other countries' names.

I don't see the point.

Do you object to Etats-Unis or Estados Unidos, or the myriad other things the US is called in other languages?

Are they going to quit calling us Amerika Birleşik Devletleri? No fucking way.

I agree. The whole trend is mostly being driven by authoritarians, who see this as a cheap and easy way to get nationalistic applause at home.

Usually from the very people they're robbing blind.

And sure enough, I seem to recall that the first one to push this country name purity idea was none other Qaddafi - who insisted that all UN/diplomatic letters and publications mentioning Libya, refer to it as the "Libyan Arab Jamahiriya."

Each and every time.

Similar demand have since been made by Tanzania (the "United Republic of Tanzania" - as opposed to what? Some other Tanzania?); Bolivia (the "Plurinational State of Bolivia" ); Venezuela (the "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" ); and of course North Korea (the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" ) - which is hilarious, considering they're none of those things other than Korean.

There are a few others here and there.

There was also the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" for a number of years - although that one made a little more sense, seeing as neighboring Greece disputed their very name. They now go by North Macedonia.

Again, I'm not saying that having long official country names is a problem (our friends the Brits can tell us all about that) - but insisting that others use complicated and/or unpronounceable country names each and every time, is just bad policy.

Now, if someone could just make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan...

If ever become a traveling man, that'll be good to know.

I don't object to other countries using local dialects to describe us within their own countries, but they should address us by our chosen international name.

It's more of a colonial thing, where we subjugate a culture and define it in our own image.

Bejing existed for milenias, using a name that sounded like it is spelled, until we in the west came along and called it Peking. We put it on maps, and used it in the press and movies.

We redefined the name of a city that existed for thousands of years because it was easier to say and sounded more western.

They have a right to their culture. We have a right to ours.

The Spanish call Deutschland “Alemania” because “Germany” was an English colony?

People call things different names in different languages. That is because they are… different languages.

The Chinese use a variety of descriptive names for, for example, US cities that have utterly nothing to do with what we call those cities in English. That is because the Chinese,like anyone else, are entitled to call things whatever they want in their language.

The Spanish didn’t colonize “Neuva York” which doesn’t sound a damn thing like “New York,” but they can call it whatever the fuck they want to in Spanish. What skin is it off anyone’s back?

This is a bizarre nationalistic gesture by a dictator, and not some apology for historical oppression, etc.

Wink 😉