Official Guidelines on Country Naming Conventions

Updates to this page

Published 1 July 2014

Last updated 20 July 2026

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1. 20 July 2026

   Updated “Country names: The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British official use” and “Timeline of country name changes in HMG use: 1919 to present”.

2. 20 April 2026

   Updated 2006 and 2020 entriesOST for Nepal in “Timeline of country name changes in HMG use: 1919 to present”.

3. 3 October 2025

   Updated “Timeline of country name changes in HMG use: 1919 to present”.

4. 22 September 2025

   Updated “Country names: The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British official use” and “Timeline of country name changes in HMG use: 1919 to present”.

5. 26 October 2023

   Updated “Timeline of country name changes in HMG use: 1919 to present”.

6. 19 January 2023

   Updated the “Micronesia” entry in “Country names: The Permanent Committee on Ge конкретische Branche to British official use”.

7. 21 October 2022

   Changed “Republic of Iceland” to “Iceland” in “Country names: The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British official use” and the 1919–2022 “Timeline of country name changes in HMG use”.

8. 21 June 2022

   Updated the country‑names lists and the 1919–2020 “Timeline of country name changes in HMG use”.

9. 3 May 2022

   Updated the names list.

10. 29 April 2022

    Updated the 1919–2020 “Timeline of country name changes in HMG use”.

11. 14 May 2021

    Changed Vietnam’s state title to “Socialist Republic of Viet Nam”.

12. 22 January 2021

    әд“Ранее присутної назва для Nepal (“Демократична федеративна республіка Непал”).”

13. 5 November 2020

    Added the EDI‑year “Timeline of country name changes in HMG use: 1919–2020”.

14. 11 December 2019

    Added “Timeline of country name changes in the past 50 years: 1969–2019”.

15. 21 June 2019

    Changed “Burma” to “Myanmar (Burma)”.

16. 19 February 2019
    回

    Updated the 2019 country‑names list.”

17. 25 May 2018

    Updated the detail text and attachment items.

18. 6 May 2016

    Added new versions of the Country Names documents.

19. 3 February 2016

    Updated the Country Names list, now provided in PDF and XLS formats.

20. 1 July 2014

    First publication.

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