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A Land, not a Republic

Bohemians seek to rename Czech Republic as ‘Czechia’

What are we to make of the growing movement against the name ‘Czech Republic’? It seems a welcome development, although one has a certain hesitancy in adopting the name ‘Czechia’ which somehow just doesn’t ring true from the English tongue.

Many will still automatically recall ‘Czechoslovakia’, an artificial country invented in 1918 which lasted a surprising seventy-four years. Its two successor states will celebrate their twenty-fifth anniversary of independence next year, and perhaps this landmark event has provoked some introspection regarding the country’s name.

It’s not that the Czech Republic is alone: there are plenty of countries whose official names included an adjectival demonym — the French Republic, the Italian Republic, and the Hellenic Republic spring to mind. But these three examples all have names that more readily spring to mind — France, Italy, Greece — and which are used more frequently then the official state names.

Besides the Czech Republic, the only other example of a country known only as ‘the [demonymic adjective] Republic’ is the Dominican Republic, which cannot be known as Dominica owing the nearby sovereign island of the same name. (The island Dominica was named after Sunday whereas the DR was named after Saint Dominic, the patron of its largest city.) Even the Central African Republic is often referred to as Centrafrique (in French, at least).

Is it a move against republicanism? Not especially. When neighbouring Hungary adopted its new constitution it dropped the state name ‘Hungarian Republic / Republic of Hungary’ in favour of just plain ‘Hungary’ while maintaining a republican form of government. More influential perhaps is that it’s often viewed as a bit tinpot-dictatorship to have the word ‘republic’ in your country’s everyday name.


Back to ‘Czechia’ though. The traditional name for this country is Bohemia, which is complicated by the fact that Bohemia is the proper name for only one region of the country. The Czech state is composed of Bohemia, Moravia, and part of Silesia (often referred to as Czech Silesia). Some countries are known by large sub-national regions, like ‘Holland’ for the Netherlands or ‘England’ for the United Kingdom.

An accurate traditional name for the Czech Republic would be ‘Bohemia and Moravia’. One would be wrong to assume that this name had been delegitimised by the period of Nazi occupation when the country was known as the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia & Moravia, but curiously the Communist party in the modern Czech Republic uses the name ‘Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia’.

But really the best solution to this perceived problem is to return to the simple name of ‘Bohemia. The word ‘Czech’ is indeed itself derived from the Czech word for Bohemian, and in addition to having long historical antecedents Bohemia is a word that fits well into English language, much more so than the contrived ‘Czechia’. So, while one welcomes dropping ‘Republic’, my vote is very firmly in the Bohemian camp.

Published at 2:30 pm on Friday 15 April 2016. Categories: Bohemia History Politics Tradition Tags: .
Comments

If you are not fond of Czechia, I suppose one could have Czechland, which, if Google be believed, would be Českézemě in Czech!
Did try to translate ‘Czech’ into Latin – result Croatica, and ‘Czechia’ became Dania, as did Denmark, so not very helpful :(

— John U.K. 15 Apr 2016 5:44 pm

Let the Liechtensteins buy it all and name it after themselves as they did with the counties of Schellenberg and Vaduz in the 18th century.
I don’t doubt they could afford it, and this would neatly solve the longstanding dispute about their confiscated estates in Moravia.

— Hetterscheidt 16 Apr 2016 8:42 pm

I always call it Czechovia. And Czech[o]-slovakia lasted 1918-1938.

— Rory O'Donnell 16 Apr 2016 10:27 pm

Note the article “Die Aeroplane in Brescia” by Franz Kafka on this page of “Bohemia”.

— Baby Yar 2 Jul 2016 3:21 pm

Take the example of Denmark and call it Czechmark. Now that sounds good in English!:)

— Upton Criddington 7 Jul 2016 7:49 am

Czechomoravesia? Bohemomoravesia? Pragosilesia? Yikes!

— Upton Criddington 7 Jul 2016 7:52 am
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