2592: Turkey Changes its Name | Jan 19, 2022

The nation of Turkey stated recently that they plan to officially change the name of the country to 'Turkiye' which is how it is written in Turkish, though without the umlaut for 'Türkiye'. This is not even the only country to change its official, English name in the last decade, as seen with Eswatini and Czechia, but it is certainly the biggest and most important. It may take some time to catch on, if ever, but if anything the term 'Persia' is more ingrained in the mind of an English speaker yet the efforts were successful in changing the name to 'Iran', and likewise with Siam to Thailand etc.. Many have questioned the timing as well, given the severity of the economic crisis going on there, as a way to divert media attention. Only time will tell if this will be widely used, but certainly for official purposes there will be a shift.