By Baron Henri Estramant.
The Czech Republic’s leaders have chosen “Czechia” as the one-word alternative appellation of their country to facilitate for companies, politicians and sportsmen to use on products, name tags, and sporting jerseys.
The choice, agreed on Thursday evening, 14 April 2016, by the president, prime minister, heads of parliament and foreign and defence ministers, has won the cabinet’s approval before the foreign ministry can lodge the name with the United Nations so that it becomes the country’s official short version.
The Czech Republic emerged, along with Slovakia, from the peaceful breakup of the old Czechoslovakia in 1993. However hitherto there has been no standardised one-word English name for the Czech Republic, unlike, for instance, France, the shortened version of the French Republic.
That has led to a lot of head-scratching. The largest part of the country is known as Bohemia (“Čechy” in Czech), but there are also other regions, Moravia, and Silesia, so one name is needed that does not exclude those historical lands.
In other languages, including Dutch (Tsjechië), French (Tchéquie), German (Tschechien), the Czech Republic is already designated by a single name, but in Czech itself the name “Česko” has made slow progress since 1993 and “Čechy” (or Bohemia) is still commonly used to signify the entire country.
For more information:
Mission of Czechia to the EU, H. E. Ambassador Martin Povejšil: www.mzv.cz/representation_brussels/en/
Embassy of Czechia to Belgium, H. E. Ambassador Jaroslav Kurfürst: www.mzv.cz/brussels
Embassy of Czechia to The Netherlands, H. E. Ambassador Jana Reinišová: www.mzv.cz/hague
Embassy of Czechia to Luxembourg, H. E. Ambassador Petr Kubernát: www.mzv.cz/luxembourg
