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Guidance

Country names

Spellings of country names as recommended by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN).

Updates to this page

From:
Ministry of Defence
Published:
1 July 2014
Last updated:
20 July 2026
Show all updates

  1. 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. Updated: 2006 and 2020 entries for Nepal in 'Timeline of country name changes in HMG use: 1919 to present'.

  3. Updated 'Timeline of country name changes in HMG use: 1919 to present'.

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

  6. Updated 'Micronesia' country name under 'Country names: The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British official use'.

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

  8. Updated country names lists and 'Timeline of country name changes in HMG use: 1919 to 2020'.

  9. Updated the names list.

  10. 'Timeline of country name changes in HMG use: 1919 to 2020' updated.

  11. Changed Vietnam's state title to Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.

  12. Removed previous name for Nepal ("Democratic Federal Republic of Nepal").

  13. Added Timeline of country name changes in HMG use: 1919 to 2020.

  14. Added Timeline of country name changes in the past 50 years: 1969 to 2019.

  15. Changed Burma to Myanmar (Burma)

  16. Updated the Country names list for 2019.

  17. Updated the detail text and attachment items.

  18. Added updated versions of Country name documents.

  19. Updated the Country names list which is now provided in 2 formats PDF and XLS.

  20. First published.

Documents

Country names: The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British official use

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Country names: The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British official use

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Timeline of country name changes in HMG use: 1919 to present

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Details

PCGN works in conjunction with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) to determine the list of country names and official state titles for use by all government departments. Country names usually reflect current British usage. The official state title, (ie. the form used in formal, legal or diplomatic contexts), where different, is shown and reflects the name used by the state itself. It is translated into English where necessary.

The list is arranged alphabetically by country name.

This information is also contained in the FCDO’s geographical names index.

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