What's In a Name? Czech vs Czechia

A geographical, or short name, for the Czech Republic was proposed soon after its formation. On January 3, 1993, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josef Zieleniec, told journalists in New York that the country’s new name would be either Česko or Českozemsko, Czechia or Czechland in English.

A spokesperson for the British Embassy said that all British diplomats and local employees use “Czech Republic”. The spokesperson got the following answer from an unnamed respondent: “I haven’t heard anyone using Czechia. It doesn’t really work very well in English in my opinion.”

An unnamed source at the American Embassy said, “The State Department has no official position on how countries are named or how they choose to be named. It’s up to the individual countries.”

The source went on to say, “The Czech Republic is a fine name and has a certain gravitas. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the Czech Republic.”

“A geographical name is terribly important for each country,” says Felix. “We were a kingdom. Today we are a republic. Tomorrow we can be I don’t know what.”

Jeleček adds, “It expresses the continuity of a given state in time and space.”

This type of argument provokes a strong reaction from Felix. “Here is the worst specialization of this approach – this capriciousness. ‘I like it; I don’t like it.’ Please, how is that an argument?” he said.

One of the biggest opponents to the name Česko was president Václav Havel who was quoted as saying “Slugs crawl over my skin a little when I hear that word.”

Ladislav Špaček, Havel’s former media spokesperson who supports the use of the name Česko, said he tried to convince the former president but to no avail. “You know, perhaps in it was the bitter reminder of the separation of a unified state. His generation regarded the name Česko as the torso from the former Czechoslovakia,” he said via email.

“From the beginning he enjoyed great prestige and what he said was believed,” Felix said in regards to Havel’s role in preventing the widespread use of the name. 

In the early days following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, some parliamentarians showed approval for the name. Jiří Vlach, a former Civic Democratic MP and Pavel Tollner, a parliamentarian for KDU-ČSL voiced support, but he wasn’t the president.

Nowadays, the name appears to be a non-issue for the major political parties.

Whether people like this name or not, an unofficial short name is appearing anyway in the form of ‘Czech’. Neither Felix nor Jeleček approve of this use.

“Made in Czech?” Jeleček says of one of the name’s most common usages. “We understand that as we are making it in a Czech person,”

When asked whether the flexibility of English would make this less of a problem, neither man was convinced. For them Czechia remains the only proper English name.

“While understanding that use of the term isn’t fully adopted in the Czech Republic or by the U.S. government, there were a few factors that made its use appealing. First, the rationale for the request was sound and based on efforts within the country for acceptance of Czechia. Second, from the point of view of the users of the atlas (who are American college students), there is symmetry by using Czechia with the use of Slovakia (which officially is the Slovak Republic).”

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