Swaziland's New Name in All Six UN Languages

Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland. Based on this map by Htonl and NordNordWest.

"Eswatini" Not Only For English

Last year, we told you about the small African Kingdom of Swaziland's name change to "Kingdom of Eswatini", which it turns out has caught on more quickly than usual in the media. Unlike Côte d'Ivoire, Cabo Verde, Timor-Leste, and Czechia, whose previous English names are still arguably dominant today, Wikipedia editors have found that most sources switched rapidly from Swaziland to Eswatini after the name change.

In our first article, we promised to let you know when the new name came through in the other official languages of the United Nations (since the UN acts as a sort of formal registry for countries' official names). Well, here they are:

Official Short Name
Language	Before	After
Arabic	سوازً يَد	إسواتيني
Chinese	斯威士兰	斯威士兰
English	Swaziland	Eswatini
French	le Swaziland	l'Eswatini
Russian	Свазиленд	Эсватини
Spanish	Swazilandia	Eswatini

Official Formal Name
Language	Before	After
Arabic	مملكة سوازً يَد	مملكة إسواتيني
Chinese	斯威士兰王国	斯威士兰王国
English	the Kingdom of Swaziland	the Kingdom of Eswatini
French	le Royaume du Swaziland	le Royaume d’Eswatini
Russian	Королевство Свазиленд	Королевство Эсватини
Spanish	el Reino de Swazilandia	el Reino de Eswatini

Country Name:   • Eswatini (English) • eSwatini (Swati) Full Name:   • Kingdom of Eswatini (English) • Umbuso weSwatini (Swati) Capital:   • Mbabane (executive and UN-registered official) • Lobamba (legislative and ceremonial)  Adjective: Swazi

As you can see, the name was changed in all UN official languages except Chinese - probably because Chinese uses only rough transliterations of countries' native or English names anyway. Still, the Chinese name is clearly based on the previous English version, being pronounced roughly as "Sih-wei-shih-lan". In contrast, recent name changes for Czechia and the Gambia did include modifications to their Chinese names at the UN, though in those cases there was no major change in pronunciation involved.

The name in Swati (also known as Swazi), Eswatini's other official language besides English, is also registered as a native country name at the UN. It was not changed - it was eSwatini before, and is still eSwatini now (for more on the capitalization difference, check out our previous article on Swaziland's name change). The full formal name in Swati, both before and after the change, is Umbuso weSwatini.

Learn More: Why Did Swaziland Change its Name, and How is it Pronounced?


PolGeoNow always reports on any change to a country's name - find out about others by viewing all country name change articles.


Graphic of the Swazi flag is in the public domain (source).