# Is Georgia the most popular name for a country or state?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-georgia-the-most-popular-name-for-a-country-or-state/115680
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 24, 2002, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-georgia-the-most-popular-name-for-a-country-or-state/115680 "2002-06-24T11:02:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Montezuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montezuma)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2002, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-georgia-the-most-popular-name-for-a-country-or-state/115680/1 "2002-06-24T11:02:15Z")
Why is this name so frequent in the world from the caucaus to the antartic to the actual state of georgia in the U.S why is it so popular and how did they get to have those names? What is the situation in theses states and countries?
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### Author:  [@woolly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woolly)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2002, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-georgia-the-most-popular-name-for-a-country-or-state/115680/2 "2002-06-24T11:20:05Z")
Just a WAG, but there have been a few Kings of England called George. In the same manner as there are lots of places called Victoria.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2002, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-georgia-the-most-popular-name-for-a-country-or-state/115680/3 "2002-06-24T11:22:49Z")
Well, the state is named after King George II, who signed the royal charter establishing the colony.
South Georgia was also named in honor of King George. (I’m not sure if it’s the same one.)
As for the Republic of Georgia, I can’t find any references anywhere telling me the history of that name.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2002, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-georgia-the-most-popular-name-for-a-country-or-state/115680/4 "2002-06-24T11:30:01Z")
The U.S. state was named after King George II of the U.K.
South Georgia Island in the south Atlantic was named after King George III of the U.K.
There are several theories of how the nation of Georgia got its name, but it’s certainly not named after any person named George. See this thread for some of the theories: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=85642](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=85642)
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### Author:  [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2002, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-georgia-the-most-popular-name-for-a-country-or-state/115680/5 "2002-06-24T15:19:17Z")
Congo and Guinea (and derivatives) sure seem to be popular.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2002, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-georgia-the-most-popular-name-for-a-country-or-state/115680/6 "2002-06-24T16:02:17Z")
If by “state” we mean a political subdivision of a country, South Georgia is not a state. That leaves two countries or states called “Georgia” and, as has been pointed out, this is not unusual. Hell, there are two Dakotas and two Carolinas. And of course there are two countries called “Congo”.
Colombia/Columbia must be in the reckoning. There’s the South American country, and there’s the District of Columbia, which is undoubtedly a political subdivision of the United States, even if not termed “state” within the US itself. And there are towns, rivers, etc of that name also.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2002, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-georgia-the-most-popular-name-for-a-country-or-state/115680/7 "2002-06-24T16:07:36Z")
If by “state” we mean a political subdivision of a country, South Georgia is not a state. That leaves two countries or states called “Georgia” and, as has been pointed out, this is not unusual. Hell, there are two Dakotas and two Carolinas. And of course there are two countries called “Congo”.
Colombia/Columbia must be in the reckoning. There’s the South American country, and there’s the District of Columbia, which is undoubtedly a political subdivision of the United States, even if not termed “state” within the US itself. And there are towns, rivers, etc of that name also.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2002, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-georgia-the-most-popular-name-for-a-country-or-state/115680/8 "2002-06-24T16:49:03Z")
There’s also Niger and Nigeria. Two of China, two of Korea…it’s starting to sound like a game of Poker with National Geographic Cards!
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2002, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-georgia-the-most-popular-name-for-a-country-or-state/115680/9 "2002-06-24T17:01:46Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Monty \*
> **Two of China, two of Korea**
Yeah, but that’s just one country divided into two due to political reasons, not a popular country name.
If you let subdivisions count, there are three states with “Saxony” as part of their name in Germany (of which there used to exist two as well, but again it doesn’t make “Germany” a popular country name).
The Congos are regularly changing their name to Zaire and back to Congo, but that’s a matter of taste.
Anybody knows more about the Guinea thing?
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### Author:  [@JS\_Princeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JS_Princeton)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2002, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-georgia-the-most-popular-name-for-a-country-or-state/115680/10 "2002-06-24T18:46:20Z")
Guineas are the names of colonial subdivisions on the southwest coast of Africa. Guianas are the names of colonial subdivisions of the north coast of South America.