# Shouldn't we transition to calling countries by their names? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 23, 2018, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272 "2018-01-23T04:23:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/41 "2018-01-25T05:00:31Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I think we should stop trying to transition. I’m tired of people getting all pretentious and using the name from another language. The name of a country is no different from any other word, use the name in our language. How many countries pronounce United States, of, and/or America the way we do? I’m comfortable with the idea of pronunciations we can handle. Unidos Estados or whatever Spanish speakers call us is fine. I just wonder why you’d use a name that isn’t even a translation. Like Germany, or Finland. Those names just seem archaic. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/42 "2018-01-25T05:30:16Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > You’re speaking English, and the English word for the country between Sweden and Russia is “Finland.” Its two neighbors are “Sweden” and “Russsia”\* in English. > > Objecting to it is like objecting to the fact we call an automobile a “car” while the French call it a “voiture.” You wouldn’t insist that we have to call a Peugeot a voiture because that’s what they call it in France, would you? Not sure this is a good argument. _Isn’t_ there a difference between names and other kinds of words? How would you feel about being referred to as Karel or Carlito? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/43 "2018-01-25T05:41:42Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > [SNL noticed this in 1990](http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/enchilada/n9970?snl=1). That makes me think of those people who insist on saying Eebeetha or Barthelona. Yes, it’s a rough approximation of how Spanish people say that in Spanish, but it’s not even the primary language in those places. ---
**Author:** ![Norse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/44 "2018-01-25T06:07:47Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I’m comfortable with the idea of pronunciations we can handle. Unidos Estados or whatever Spanish speakers call us is fine. I just wonder why you’d use a name that isn’t even a translation. Like Germany, or Finland. Those names just seem archaic. I think that it may have been mentioned upthread, but “Finland” is the official name of the country in one of the official languages that Finland has. What’s archaic about it? Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/45 "2018-01-25T06:41:35Z")
I thought they called their country Suomi. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/46 "2018-01-25T06:44:30Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I thought they called their country Suomi. In Finnish. A signifant5 minority speaks Swedish. ---
**Author:** ![Norse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/47 "2018-01-25T07:04:19Z")
^^^ Finland has (at least) two (I don’t know about Sami) official languages: Finnish and Swedish. In Finnish, the name is Suomi, in Swedish (and, incidentally, also in the other Scandinavian languages), the name is Finland. Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/48 "2018-01-25T08:22:42Z")
OK, let’s follow this to its logical conclusion. There are 22 species of endemic birds in Hispanola, which means they do not naturally occur anywhere in the world except Haiti and/or the Dominican Republic. Why should these bird species have English name like Black-crowned tanager, Hispaniolan parakeet and Least poorwill, since there is nobody there to call them that? Never mind that they happen to be members of families known as tanagers, parakeets and poorwills. And if you do wish to rename them by their local name do you name then in French, of Spanish? ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/49 "2018-01-25T12:42:40Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > OK, let’s follow this to its logical conclusion. There are 22 species of endemic birds … Well, I don’t know about the “common names” of birds, but with plants, that is a reason most people who care about accurate communication use the latin names, rather than local variants. Who knows if a Russian’s buttercup or bluebell is the same as mine? With birds, I could imagine that naming conventions have a significant Anglo influence. Birdwatching certainly does. Given their mobillty, it might make sense to name all members of a specific group - such as tanagers - consistently. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/50 "2018-01-25T15:57:46Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > OK, let’s follow this to its logical conclusion. There are 22 species of endemic birds in Hispanola, which means they do not naturally occur anywhere in the world except Haiti and/or the Dominican Republic. Why should these bird species have English name like Black-crowned tanager, Hispaniolan parakeet and Least poorwill, since there is nobody there to call them that? Never mind that they happen to be members of families known as tanagers, parakeets and poorwills. And if you do wish to rename them by their local name do you name then in French, of Spanish? Of course not—you call them by what the birds call themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/51 "2018-01-25T16:00:42Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > With birds, I could imagine that naming conventions have a significant Anglo influence. Birdwatching certainly does. Given their mobillty, it might make sense to name all members of a specific group - such as tanagers - consistently. Why would naming conventions for birds have an Anglo influence? Do you for some reason think that people in other countries hadn’t named their birds until you guys pointed out to us that aviones, urracas, garzas and patos are all different? The groupings are also different by language, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/52 "2018-01-25T16:21:10Z")
Exonyms can be even more vexing when it comes to cities. When I defended my MA thesis, the Slavic-trained professors on my committee referred to Poland’s fourth-largest city as Wroclaw, which is the name I used in my thesis. The German-trained professors used Breslau. For a conference paper I did last year, I referred to the capital of Slovenia as Ljubljana; a German participant continually called it Laibach. Belgrade is the usual English term Serbia’s capital in English, but it’s Beograd to me. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272/53 "2018-01-25T17:32:36Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Of course not—you call them by what the birds call themselves. …in a tweet, of course. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-we-transition-to-calling-countries-by-their-names/807272.md?page=2)