Every Country With A Terrible Name (How NOT To Name A Country)

Every Country With A Terrible Name (How NOT To Name A Country)

There are LOTS of ways you shouldn’t name a country, so today I figured I’d go through them all for you!

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50 Comments

  1. Beggar42 on July 15, 2021 at 9:28 pm

    wrt the native names … besides Timor-leste and Cote d’Ivoire, there’s also Swaziland renaming itself to Eswatini, Burma becoming Myanmar, Cape Verde is now Cabo Verde.



  2. Luke Strole on July 15, 2021 at 9:29 pm

    St. Vincent and the Grenadines sounds like a Christian boy band



  3. arPos Kraft on July 15, 2021 at 9:30 pm

    Netherlands, geographical qualifier meaning low lands
    Belgica, geographical qualifier (in roman) meaning low lands



  4. The Aristotle! on July 15, 2021 at 9:32 pm

    Bro why you got a hickey



  5. John Smith on July 15, 2021 at 9:32 pm

    5:45 Now you’re speaking my language



  6. Dario Montero on July 15, 2021 at 9:32 pm

    Explaining each name_ (Pd: Avoid similar names is impossible)

    South sudan: The name it should be: Niloland.

    North macedonia: Greece does want to admit it doesnt deserve the succession of alexander the great.The easy it would be that greece and Bulgaria give the macedonia region to North Macedonia.

    Timor Leste: Indonesia doesnt want to give to Timor their western part.

    CAR: The name it could be Ubanda/Ubanga.

    South africa: The name it should be: Cape.

    Congo: The congo sohuld just unite again and forget the french and the dutch languages forever.

    Korea: is easier than boths koreas collapse so we can make a new different and exotic Korea.

    Another example of a bad name for nation:

    Nehterlands: The name it should be: "Batavia". The ntherlands if can be considered as a region that have: Luxembourg, Belgium, Saarbruck and this supposly "Holland".



  7. Femi James on July 15, 2021 at 9:35 pm

    He Dosent Understand Origins of some of these Countries names



  8. Liggliluff on July 15, 2021 at 9:37 pm

    (22:10) That’s not how you pronounce J in Europe



  9. rina on July 15, 2021 at 9:37 pm

    wasnt the drc called zaire? it was such a nice name idk why they would change it. it was simple and so much better than renaming it to democratic republic of the congo



  10. Syntax Error on July 15, 2021 at 9:39 pm

    You seem to miss the distinction between "south" and "southern". "South Sudan" is very different from "southern Sudan". I don’t see the problem at at all. And then you make the same mistake over and over with various other countries (as if you don’t know the difference between "east" and "eastern", and so on). "South Africa" is NOT the same as "southern Africa" (or "the south OF Africa", if you wish). It makes me wonder if you also don’t know the difference between, say, "rapid" and "rapidly", or "up" and "upper". HOWEVER, you DO hit pay dirt with "Western Sahara" and "Northern Ireland". Those are obviously names begging for confusion.



  11. Liggliluff on July 15, 2021 at 9:39 pm

    (10:40) Well, Sweden’s name is "Sverige", and Switzerland’s name is something along the lines of "Suisse/Svizzera". Okay, maybe those are kinda similar too.



  12. Leafl on July 15, 2021 at 9:40 pm

    The South Africa province map is outdated..



  13. arPos Kraft on July 15, 2021 at 9:41 pm

    in defense of Macedonia, they wanted it to just be macedonia but due to extreme butthurtyness of greece they finally settled on north macedonia, they wernt going to not call it macedonia since historically thats important to them so what do you do.



  14. Ádám Rózsa on July 15, 2021 at 9:42 pm

    noted, my country shall be called The democratic people’s republic of new south wales, joke, we gonna force you to call it in it’s latin name instead.



  15. Larco D on July 15, 2021 at 9:43 pm

    A Brit complaining about the english names of countries is only the second most ignorant thing here. He also complains that some countries ensist on being called by their actual names. I know it’s intended as light hearted fun but it implies and reinforces a regressive mindset. It’s kind of sad that even with a world map in front of him his mind is still traped in little britain.



  16. Syntax Error on July 15, 2021 at 9:47 pm

    Good point abut "democratic" in the name of countries! Indeed, it’s a tell-tale sign of a probable dictatorship. A similar word is "peoples’ (republic of)". It’s like, duh, who else would the country be for if not for its people? Sure enough, if there’s a need to add such a word, then you can be pretty sure it’s NOT "for the people", and instead a dictatorship. Countries that really are democratic and therefore "for their people" don’t need such words. (Imagine if Finland was called "The peoples democratic republic of Finland", or if Norway was called "The people’s democratic monarchy of Norway".)



  17. F.13 on July 15, 2021 at 9:52 pm

    In russia we usually say south african republic
    Which is ‘юар" (pronounced exactly like "you are").
    It’s short, and no confusion there.
    You could say "SAR" in english too…
    But don’t confuse it with "CAR" (central african republic)
    (Do you pronounce it like "kar" or "sar")



  18. Hezekiah on July 15, 2021 at 9:52 pm

    16:35 is he talking about Christchurch?



  19. Krum Kirilov on July 15, 2021 at 9:54 pm

    As far as I know about south sudan you don’t want to take it as an example



  20. Chrispy Boi on July 15, 2021 at 9:55 pm

    3:05 top ten rappers Eminem was too afraid to diss



  21. Syntax Error on July 15, 2021 at 9:55 pm

    Sweden and Switzerland never named themself such. Instead, that’s what YOUR language (English), for some reason, choose to call them. Sweden is "Sverige" in Swedish, meaning "Nation of Sveas" ("Sverige" is from "Svea Rike". "Rike" is a cognate to the German word "reich".)



  22. Андрей Гончаров on July 15, 2021 at 9:56 pm

    N-



  23. Daniel Gerber on July 15, 2021 at 9:57 pm

    North Macedonia came about after many years of negotiations and "cold war". Greece hates Slavic people coming themselves "Macedonia" because Philip of Macedon was their great hero, and Macedonia used to be ethnically Greek. The country would have preferred "Macedonia", but Greece insisted they qualify it.

    The "North South Sudan" thing would work for any country or state with a compass direction in their name. The east of Western Australia is west of the west of South Australia.

    East Timor is called that because the whole island is Timor. Anyway, their official name is Timor-Leste.

    Given the reasons you hate compass names in country names, you must really hate the United States of America (there are many other states in America, some of which are also united, and it leaves the only possible demonym as "American" which also relates to people from the rest of the continent.

    You should have mentioned North Yemen and South Yemen, which have re-emerged with the war but were also the official names some decades ago. North Yemen is west of South Yemen.

    I think El Salvador is a horrible name for a country. It’s just "the Saviour" in Spanish. I get that they’re really Christian and want to honour Jesus in their name (and their capital’s name) but from that point of view it actually sounds blasphemous (a Christian would say that Jesus is the Saviour, not the country!)

    In terms of Belgian Luxembourg being bigger than Luxembourg, what about Inner Mongolia and the republic of Mongolia? It might not be bigger in area on a map, but it has a much larger population (including a much larger population of Mongolians).

    Yes Australia’s states are horrible, but you didn’t mention that for some reason we have WestERN Australia but SOUTH Australia.



  24. sqklqlwlwkw wkeiwkwkwkw on July 15, 2021 at 9:58 pm

    VARDASKA FYROM



  25. Dodo Master on July 15, 2021 at 9:58 pm

    Well, i mean, it’s greece’s fault it renamed to north macedonia



  26. Zericef on July 15, 2021 at 9:59 pm

    I mean yeah geographic qualifiers are bad, but you can still refer very clearly between regions and countries in English. Ie, South Africa is the country, Southern Africa is the region.



  27. Islam Gaziev on July 15, 2021 at 10:00 pm

    Fun fact, in Turkic languages Hungary is called using Magyar root, so in Uzbek for example its Mojariston, with ston meaning land and Mojar being a derivative of Magyar



  28. Anon1776 on July 15, 2021 at 10:01 pm

    sudanese nuts 😂😂😂😳😳😳😳😳😳😳



  29. Republic of bird on July 15, 2021 at 10:03 pm

    West Ireland, and East Ireland
    Problem solved



  30. Benzebuth on July 15, 2021 at 10:09 pm

    Iran managed to get called by their local name. Before it was called Persia by everybody ;.)



  31. ibx2cat on July 15, 2021 at 10:09 pm

    You could say Cote D’ivoire made a real faux pas with their name choice, huh?



  32. Kathryn Guzmán on July 15, 2021 at 10:09 pm

    Here’s another example of a country that wants us to call them by their name in their native language, Cabo Verde, which is Cape Verde. Annoys me to no end.



  33. The Greek History Animator on July 15, 2021 at 10:10 pm

    Greek is real Macedonia! The other speaks Slavic



  34. Ádám Rózsa on July 15, 2021 at 10:11 pm

    uhm.. idk how old was that streetview, but it is officialy called Magyarország now, in english: Hungary, instead of Republic of Hungary



  35. Ninja Eagle on July 15, 2021 at 10:11 pm

    The Gambia and Zambia have such similar names that the Prime minister of Gambia changed the country’s name to "The Gambia" so it would sound more different than Zambia.



  36. Confounding Islam on July 15, 2021 at 10:12 pm

    New Caledonia is NOT a country …. it is part of Fance.



  37. Footlick Gamer on July 15, 2021 at 10:13 pm

    REEE YOU DARE INSULT BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLDDDDD.
    Also I think Luxembourg owned that part of Belgium



  38. Tom Klemenčič on July 15, 2021 at 10:13 pm

    10.12 we are not eastern europeans!



  39. Josh Jones on July 15, 2021 at 10:14 pm

    Based on your geography statistics Toycat, I’m going to call the next country I make the Authoritarian Dictatorship of North South East West. As a consequence it will have a high probability of being a Libertarian Centrist Republic with the highest amount of freedom in the world.



  40. Niek Joosten on July 15, 2021 at 10:15 pm

    Fun facts;
    One of the provinces in the south of the Netherlands is called North-Brabant.
    3 of the provinces in the north of Belgium together are called South-Brabant (Antwerp, Flemish- and Waloon-Brabant.)
    NL and BE both have a Limburg.
    The Belgians also have a province called Luxemburg.



  41. Andria Burjaliani on July 15, 2021 at 10:17 pm

    DRC was called zaire so it will be great if they get back this name



  42. Mark Decoto on July 15, 2021 at 10:19 pm

    New York was a stupid name. To make it worse, the city and state have the same name.



  43. CatLex on July 15, 2021 at 10:20 pm

    ok eswatini i will start calling you that now



  44. Freedomsaver on July 15, 2021 at 10:22 pm

    How to piss of everyone in 24 minutes….



  45. arPos Kraft on July 15, 2021 at 10:22 pm

    @21:00 ow funny how the anglon critiques others but when it comes to the bigges faux pas namely naming a nation after a full continent its "obtrusive" no its VITAL, the US never became a country, it kept its political designator as loaned from the United kingdom of both the netherlands and great brittain/ni (which at some point were one united kingdom) and rolled with it; to make matters worse; the US refers to THESE united states…namely 13 original colonies forming a union, its by far the most idiotic identity destroying melting pot faux pas name there is …. Surinam and Australia did it correctly; to be a nation you need to identify yourself uniquely



  46. undokat on July 15, 2021 at 10:23 pm

    what about North and South Dakota, is the North of South Dakota mocking the North Dakota? Maybe the North Dakota should declare independence or join Canada to show finally those idiots from the North of South Dakota that enough is enough



  47. EmperorBod on July 15, 2021 at 10:24 pm

    There are more than two nations that force people to use their own native name:
    – eSwatini
    – Cabo Verde
    – Myanmar



  48. arPos Kraft on July 15, 2021 at 10:25 pm

    @18:45 contrary to popular believe the whole world does not have English as their native tongue and as a result the rest of the world does not call Deutschland Germany but for example Duitsland or L’allemange



  49. Femi James on July 15, 2021 at 10:25 pm

    This man Dosent understand Disunification of Countries



  50. Grub on July 15, 2021 at 10:28 pm

    you do not understand how hard it is to explain where im from im from the country of georgia