Czech Republic wants to be called Czechia (not Chechnya) and people are freaking out
LONDON -- Czech officials have proposed changing the country's full name -- the two-word "Czech Republic" -- into a single word with just three syllables: Czechia.
The Foreign Ministry said a one-word name is more practical and flexible for various uses, such as sport team products and clothing.
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Except that people have already confused it with Chechnya, a restive Russian republic nearly 2,000 miles away.
In 2013, some analysts mistakenly stated that the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing were from the Czech Republic. Czech diplomats had to issue a clarification.
"The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities - the Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation," the ambassador in Washington DC said at the time.
Twitter users are already warning Czech authorities to rethink their initiative:
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But Czech leaders are unfazed, and in a joint statement said the name will be lodged with the United Nations upon approval by the parliament.
“We recommend using the single-word name in foreign languages in situations when it’s not necessary to use the country’s formal name: sports events, marketing purposes etc,” the statement said.
A website called Go Czechia claims the proposed name is the grammatically correct version of the English translation of Česko, which is the short name of the country in Czech. The longer version of the country's name in Czech is Česká republika.
It also says that the first recorded use of Czechia was in 1634 in Latin and in 1841 in English.
Along with Slovakia, the Czech Republic was established when Czechoslovakia peacefully broke in two in 1993.
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