Czechia or Czech Republic

Hi Elaine - I guess I've been out of the loop,but this was the first I'd heard of the possible new name. I just did an Internet search, and a Washington Post article from mid-April suggested that which the idea had the backing of several Czech politicians, it still needed formal approval , and the UN wasn't recognizing the name at that point, for what that's worth). The article also said that, if adopted, Czechia would only be the short-form name of the country, and "Czech Republic" would remain the "official" name. Hope you had a good visit!
Apparently the Czech leaders are tired of hearing the name of their country butchered by other leaders when visiting abroad. Imagine having a clueless leader of your country . . . how embarrassing!

Czechia?? Chechnya?? I see a lot of room for confusion.

as far as I am aware it is not officially Czechia at the moment but Google maps have already gone ahead and changed it so the world may as well get used to it, if Google is calling it Czechia then everyone else MUST follow.
really is just a shorten version of the name for like many other countries, how often do you hear France being called the French republic or the United States of America being called anything but the States,the US or USA. or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland anything but the UK or Britain.

If this is the trend, I suppose we'll be 'merica before long

It seems to be an English-language issue. In German it's simply »Tschechien« and in Dutch »Tsjechië«. It will be similar in other languages.

From the Embassy of the Czech Republic:

There is a bit of confusion regarding the short name of our country.
The important information is that the official name Czech Republic did not change.

Czechia is supposed to be used in rather less formal or unofficial communication, while the full name has been used at formal and official ocassions. This includes, for example, the embassy's official title and positions, as you can see in my contact details below.

I hope this might help.

Best wishes,
Pavla Velickinova
Counsellor, Head of the Public Diplomacy Department & Spokesperson

Embassy of the Czech Republic
3900 Spring of Freedom St., NW
Washington, DC 20008 - USA

Hi,

There are official answers, such as that you received, and there are unoffical answers. On the last two trips I have heard Czechs use both names when speaking to them in either German or English, just depends on the individual.

What will they think of next? Before you know it countries will be inventing names like Magyarország or Nippon or Fyrom or worse!

This was already discussed few times. See: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/czech/czechia
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/czech/a-new-name-for-the-czech-republic
I think that the best information about this all brouhaha was posted by Elaine - information from the Czech Embassy.

"It seems to be an English language issue." How true.

We give these countries perfectly good names and they just aren't satisfied. Simply amazing!!! Next thing the Hungarians will dream up some tongue twister like Magyarország just harass English speaking tourists.

CZECHIA is the official, internationally recognized short name since last summer

https://unterm.un.org/UNTERM/Display/Record/UNHQ/NA/4275087d-4018-4082-899d-95f37efeda65

CZECHIA is Included in the ISO norm 3166

https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:code:3166:CZ

Google Maps is using CZECHIA as well

http://google-maps.pro/Czechia#49.103728,17.751007,7

US Department of State is using CZECHIA as well

http://www.state.gov/p/eur/ci/ez/

Geographic name (Czechia) of the state represents permanency and timelessness of statehood regardless of the current political system. On the contrary, an exclusive use of political name (Cz.Rep.) represents transiency, instability and historical discontinuity of the country. Czechia is simply timeless, universally applicable name of the country with more than 1200 years long history. Cz.Rep. is nothing else, than the current (only since 1993) state-political system in Czechia, thus, time limited and for common language improper denomination. Political name belongs only to passports and political documents. In all other cases is proper to use geographic name - Czechia.

From the Embassy of the Czech Republic:
There is a bit of confusion regarding the short name of our country.
The important information is that the official name Czech Republic did not change.
Czechia is supposed to be used in rather less formal or unofficial communication, while the full name has been used at formal and official ocassions. This includes, for example, the embassy's official title and positions, as you can see in my contact details below.
I hope this might help.
Best wishes,
Pavla Velickinova
Counsellor, Head of the Public Diplomacy Department & Spokesperson
Embassy of the Czech Republic
3900 Spring of Freedom St., NW
Washington, DC 20008 - USA

www.go-czechia.com here you can find all necessary information. Czechia is as less formal as France or Slovakia, political name belongs to diplomacy and into the passports, in all other occasions shot names are being used

That person from the Embassy probably does not understand the issue (embarrassing), but it is usual, that bucreaucrats are incompetent, they live in their separated world. They are so used to their "republic", they consider it the name. But it is not the name, only a kind of state-political system in the country.

So, Czechia is an official geographic name, Czech Republic an official political name. Everbody can compare it with simple and fully analogous example: e.g.it is absolutely the same relation between denominations as France / French Republic. When is used France and when French Republic ?? So, use Czechia in the same situations, when you use France in that case. It is simple, dear Watson........

The lady from the embassy should have clearly stated that Czechia is the OFFICIAL short (or geographic) country name of the Czech Republic (in English). This is the equivalent of, for example, Austria being the official short country name of the Republic of Austria, Germany being the official short country name of the Federal Republic of Germany or Spain being the official short country name of the Kingdom of Spain. The rule of thumb is wherever you use or would use Austria, Germany, Spain and other short country names, you should use Czechia and wherever you use or would use the Republic of Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Spain and political names of other countries, you should use the Czech Republic. In other words, you should be using Czechia unless you are using the diplomatic protocol or official international treaties. In all other situations, you should use Czechia.

Above all to James E.

The name Czechia is created naturally, in terms of linguistics & it is NOT Czech word.
The suffix -ia (originally Latin) is a frequent phenomenon in the English language and the word is derived naturally from the name of the nationality of the majority population of a country. As the name has its origin deep in Czech history in Latin denomination.
The first historical record of using the word Czechia in English comes from the book by Henry and Thomas Rose "A New General Biographical Dictionary Projected and Partly Arranged" from 1841, another one we can find e.g. in the report about Prussian-Austrian war in Australian newspaper "The Mercury" from 23rd May, 1866. The use of the name Czechia in North American press in the first half of 20th century was common. In 1992, before split of Czechoslovakia, the representatives of anglophone countries asked Czech government "how dou you want to call in English?". Thus, they let the decision on us, which was not solved and Czech politicians (however the name was approved by geographers and linguists) using exclusively only political name the Czech Republic. The statements of politicians from English speaking lands and simultaneously the exact description of the whole problem was most accurately expressed in a letter from the British embassy in Prague (April 4, 2000) signed by Giles Portman, Second Secretary, Press and Politics: "I fully understand your arguments for the use of the name Czechia as a direct, English language equivalent to Czech term Česko. We would have no problem at all with adapting accordingly. But we feel that the initiative for that change must come from the Czech side and not from us.“

So, please, do not spread untruth.