# Which Nations are Named for Specific People?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 23, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576 "2006-10-23T15:17:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/61 "2006-10-25T17:40:21Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
And Russian Georgia, also named after a George
[/QUOTE]
Georgia is not in Russia, and hasn’t been since 1918 when it declared independence.
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/62 "2006-10-25T18:36:51Z")
[QUOTE=psychonaut]
Georgia is not in Russia, and hasn’t been since 1918 when it declared independence.
[/QUOTE]
Technically accurate, but with a fault in meaningful content. Georgia did in fact declare independence in 1918 and has not since then been a part of a country officially named “Russia.” However, its independence was shortlived, as the Bolsheviks of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics soon thereafter annexed it and included it, from 1922, as a Union Republic. You may recall a Georgian named Dzhugashvili, better known by his Russianized name as Iosep Vissarionvich Stalin, who had much to do with this. Given that the USSR was solecistically known colloquially in English by the name of its largest constituent UR, Russia, it is not incorrect to say that “Georgia was part of Russia for most of the 20th Century,” the implied meaning being of course that it was part of the USSR, “Russia” being synecdotal for “USSR.” It has, of course, been independent since the breakup of the USSR in 1991.
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### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/63 "2006-10-25T18:40:04Z")
You may be thinking “Abrahamlincolnania” as a no-brainer, but it’s a little known fact that Abraham Lincoln was actually named _after_ this obscure nation, founded in 1799.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2006, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/64 "2006-10-26T13:26:33Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp]
Technically accurate, but with a fault in meaningful content. Georgia did in fact declare independence in 1918 and has not since then been a part of a country officially named “Russia.” However, its independence was shortlived, as the Bolsheviks of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics soon thereafter annexed it and included it, from 1922, as a Union Republic… Given that the USSR was solecistically known colloquially in English by the name of its largest constituent UR, Russia, it is not incorrect to say that “Georgia was part of Russia for most of the 20th Century,” the implied meaning being of course that it was part of the USSR, “Russia” being synecdotal for “USSR.”
[/quote]
Sure, much the same way that many Americans tend to refer to the Scots and Welsh as “English”, England being the largest, dominant, most populous, and most well-known constituent of the United Kingdom. However, most of the time such people are speaking out of ignorance rather than purposely employing synecdoche. If someone refers to Scotland as part of England on the SDMB, he’s bound to get corrected. Likewise with Georgia and Russia.
> [@](#):
>
> It has, of course, been independent since the breakup of the USSR in 1991.
And it was also independent long before being annexed by Russia in 1801. Thus Georgia is not now, nor was it originally, Russian. It was under Russian (or Soviet) subjugation for only a fraction of its existence.
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