What are the popular myths around the short name Czechia?

Myth No. 1: Czechia is an unknown and possibly grammatically incorrect short name for the Czech Republic. Czechia is rarely used in English because native English speakers dislike using it.

Fact: The short (geographic) name Czechia [check-i-ya] [t??ki?] was standardized as the English translation of ?esko (the short name of the Czech Republic in Czech) in 1993. Since 2016 being approved by the Czech government, Czechia has been listed in the United Nations′ databases of official country names as the internationally recognized short name of the Czech Republic in English and included in the International Organization for Standardization database of country names. Czechia is used by global companies, such as Google, Apple, Microsoft (Bing and LinkedIn), Netflix, international institutions (e.g. EU, UN, UNESCO, IATA, World Bank, NATO, OECD, Council of Europe); renowned maps and navigation services (e.g. Google Maps, TomTom, Waze, Apple Maps, Mapy.cz); international statistics (e.g. Statista, Eurostat, WHO, Worldometer, Our World in Data, CIA World Factbook); international sports associations (e.g. International Olympic Committee, International Ice Hockey Federation IIHF, International Federation of Association Football FIFA, Union of European Football Associations UEFA, International Basketball Federation FIBA); social media (e.g. X, LinkedIn, Instagram). Although the use of Czechia continues to grow, it has not, up until recently, been well known around the world because the Czech state and its institutions have not used it systematically. Some people confuse the fact that they are not used to Czechia with not liking it.

Myth No. 2: German, Russian, Chinese and other foreign languages have spontaneously used their translation of the short name ?esko. However, the Czech Republic has become widespread in English-speaking countries. It is pointless to try to convince the English-speaking world about using Czechia as a short country name for the Czech Republic.

Fact: Czech state institutions have solely used “the Czech Republic” in English for 23 years, between 1993 and 2016. The one-word equivalent of “Czechia” has been commonly used in all Germanic languages except English. Once Czechs start using Czechia more frequently, the English-speaking world will adapt, just as it adapted to recently introduced short names of other countries, such as Belarus, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Eritrea and Croatia.

The name of the former Czechoslovakia was similar after 1918. It is simply a matter of getting used to “Czechia” in English. Native English speakers can help by using “Czechia,” too.

Myth No. 3: Since ?esko is not mentioned in the Czech constitution, its English translation Czechia, can never become the official short country name.

Fact: A short (geographic) country name does not have to be spelt out in the Constitution to be official. Slovakia, for example, is not mentioned in the Constitution of the Slovak Republic either but is widely used. Since Czechia has been officially standardized and internationally recognized (see points 1 and 16), it can be used by both Czech and foreign firms, various institutions, at sporting events and by the general public in those cases when short names for other countries are used.

Myth No. 4: Czechia is a neologism (a newly coined word).

Fact: The first recorded use of Czechia was in 1541 in Latin and 1795 in English. U.S. newspapers commonly used Czechia between 1918 and 1960 to refer to the western part of Czechoslovakia (as opposed to Slovakia, its eastern part), i.e., the contemporary Czech Republic.

Myth No. 5: Czechia sounds strange in English.

Fact:?Czechia is originally derived from Latin, which is common for numerous other country names?in English, such as Austria, Australia, Croatia, Virginia, California, Indonesia, Slovakia, Latvia, Colombia and many more, also including the names of Czech regions of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. Czechia might sound unusual to some people the first time they hear it, but so do numerous geographic names derived from foreign languages that are commonly used in English, such as Idaho, Utah, Massachusetts, Lithuania, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Croatia and also (former) Czechoslovakia.

Myth No. 6: A short geographic name (Czechia) is unnecessary. A political name (the Czech Republic) is sufficient.

Fact:?A country's short (geographic) name cannot be substituted by its formal (political) name, which is transient and ignores the historical continuity of a given state territory because it is limited only to the existing state form. While the Czech Republic has only existed since 1993, the Czech state has existed in various forms and under different political names for more than one thousand years. The need for a proper short name is demonstrated by the fact that the Czech Republic is often erroneously shortened to Czech, Czech rep. or Czechrep, CR, C. Rep., Republic CZ or Czecho. In many cases, foreigners continue to use the name Czechoslovakia, although the country has not existed since 1993.

Myth No. 7: Czechia is an inappropriate and imprecise historical name because the Czech state had not used it before and has used different names instead.

Fact: Unlike a formal (political) name, which refers to an existing state political form, a short (geographic) name refers to a particular territory regardless of its current state form. As such, Czechia can be used in a historical context.?Other countries, such as Egypt, Greece, and Poland, use short geographic names even though they have experienced significant territorial changes and have had various names throughout their history.

Myth No. 8: Other countries exclusively use political names without any problems.

Fact: It is typically authoritarian and mainly internationally unrecognized and fictitious countries that use exclusively political names, such as the Democratic People′s Republic of Korea, the Donetsk People′s Republic, the Luhansk People′s Republic, the Republic of Artsakh, the Republic of Srpska, the Republic of Logone and others.

Myth No. 9: The United States and the United Kingdom are two-word country names. Therefore, there should be no problem with using the Czech Republic.

Fact: The number of words in the name is irrelevant. What matters is the difference between the political and geographic name. Furthermore, the full political name ?the Czech Republic“ is hardly comparable to those of ?the United States“ and ?the United Kingdom“, which are shortened political names of ?the United States of America“ and ?the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland“. These full political names are rarely used in everyday communication, in which both countries are usually recognized by their geographic names ?America“ and ?Great Britain“ (or ?Britain“) or by their shortened political names ?the United States“, ?the States“, ?the U.S.“, ?the U.S.A.“ and ?the United Kingdom“, ?the U.K.“, respectively. These shortened political names are not equivalent to the full political name of the Czech Republic. Furthermore, the Czech Republic is much less known than the United States and the United Kingdom around the world and, unlike the USA and the UK, it does not have a well-known, unique and internationally recognized abbreviation. CR is the official abbreviation of Costa Rica, not the Czech Republic.?(CZ)

Myth No. 10: The name change from the Czech Republic to Czechia would be too expensive and harmful, interrupting the continuity of the Czech Republic. The Czechs need to worry about much more important problems than their short country name in English.

Fact:?No change in the country name is involved since the Czech Republic as a political name remains in place and unchanged. The Czech Republic continues to be used in situations in which other countries use their formal names, such as matters of national and international diplomatic protocol and international treaties. It is more appropriate to use Czechia when other countries use their short names. The introduction and the use of Czechia instead of the Czech Republic in these situations is taking place gradually with no or minimum expense during the update of the country’s promotional materials. Any additional cost will pay for itself in the form of increased international recognition of the country because of its unambiguous name, including its global brand name, “Made in Czechia”.

Myth No. 11: Czechia has the same meaning as Bohemia. Czechia thus excludes the regions of Moravia and (Czech) Silesia from the Czech state.

Fact:?Czechia covers exactly the same geographic area as the Czech Republic and is, therefore, composed of Bohemia, Moravia, and (Czech) Silesia. Although Czechia was originally also used as a synonym for Bohemia prior to the 20th century, since the beginning of the 20th century, it has almost exclusively been used to denote the entire territory inhabited by the Czech-speaking population (i.e., Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia).

Myth No. 12: Czechia is less representative than the Czech Republic, and it is confusing because it is ambiguous.

Fact:?About 150 countries use the term “republic” in their formal political names, but most use their short names in everyday speech and during international sporting events. It is mainly undemocratic, internationally unrecognized and authoritarian regimes around the world that have frequently emphasized “republic” in their country names to increase their legitimacy.

Czechia [?t??ki?] is unambiguous in both spoken and written English. The Czech Republic [t??k r??p?b.l?k] is much more ambiguous than Czechia since the term “Czech” [t??k] is pronounced the same way as check and cheque, which have several meanings as a noun and verb in spoken English. At the same time, “republic” is ambiguous because it is used in the political names of most countries.

Developed democratic countries do not usually use their full political names in non-political contexts.

Myth No. 13: Czechia ?t??ki?? can be pronounced as ?t??t?i??.

Fact: Anyone who can pronounce “Czech” [check] [t??k] can easily pronounce Czechia [check-i-ya] [t??ki?]. There are 286 words in English in which “ch” is pronounced as [k] and not [t?] and are pronounced similarly as “Czech” [t??k], such as architect, ache, anarchy, anchor, chemistry, chaos, epoch, and mechanism. English speakers, including Czech and Czechia, must learn the pronunciation of these words.

Myth No. 14: Czechia is an unsuitable short name for the Czech Republic because it can be easily confused with Chechnya.

Fact: The Chechen Republic and the Czech Republic are even more similar than Chechnya and Czechia and were confused, for example, following the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. There are numerous countries with more similar names than Czechia/Chechnya, such as Austria/Australia, Iran/Iraq, India/Indonesia, Mali/Malawi, Niger/Nigeria, Gambia/Zambia, Slovakia/Slovenia and even Georgia/Georgia (a U.S. state). None of these countries have given up their short name and use their political name exclusively because of possible confusion with another country (region). The chance of actual confusion of Czechia and Chechnya on the international stage, such as at various sports events, is almost zero since Chechnya is not an independent country and does not act as a sovereign entity on a global scale. In other Germanic languages, the equivalent of Czechia is widely used, and the confusion between Czechia and Chechnya does not happen.

Myth No. 15: Czechia is too similar to the German ?Tschechei“ that was used by Nazi Germany as a derogatory name for the occupied Czech territory during the Second World War.

Fact: Czechia [-k-] ?is unrelated to the German term ?Tschechei“ [-kh-] … and these two terms are pronounced differently.

Although Germans had used “Tschechei” before the Nazi period, Czechia had been used many years before Germans first used ?“Tschechei”. Today, “Tschechei” is rarely used in Germany because Germans use ?Tschechien“.

If “Tschechei” is used, it does not need to be necessarily viewed as a pejorative term since it was created similarly to names for other German countries, such as Slowakei and Türkei.

Myth No. 16: The general public should decide on the correct short country name, Czechia.

Fact: The country name in all languages is not determined by public opinion, but by a legal standardisation process defined by Czech Law (No. 359/1992 before 1994 and No. 200/1994 since 1994). According to this law, the Terminological Committee of the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadaster, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, nationally standardized Czechia as the country's short name in English in early 1993.

On May 2, 2016, the Czech government empowered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to standardize the short country name Czechia internationally at the United Nations, completed on July 5, 2016.

Vladimír Hirsch, Petr Pavlínek, Zdeněk Kukal ? Czechia Civic Initiative, Praha – Brno, April 2024