Czechia or Czech Republic?

Remember to vote on the edit too :wink: Especially if you disagree with the change, since the vote is going the Yes way right now.

https://musicbrainz.org/edit/43111786

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Since everyone is clearly in favour of using the names mandated by the governments, I made the necessary tickets:

https://tickets.metabrainz.org/browse/AREQ-1378
https://tickets.metabrainz.org/browse/AREQ-1379
https://tickets.metabrainz.org/browse/AREQ-1380
https://tickets.metabrainz.org/browse/AREQ-1381
https://tickets.metabrainz.org/browse/AREQ-1382
https://tickets.metabrainz.org/browse/AREQ-1383
https://tickets.metabrainz.org/browse/AREQ-1384
https://tickets.metabrainz.org/browse/AREQ-1385

As soon as those are resolved, we can look into the cases where the government and ISO disagree (e.g. the country that wants to be known as “Macedonia”, but due to Greek concerns is called “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” by ISO).

[quote=“chirlu, post:6, topic:199906”]
Since everyone is clearly in favour of using the names mandated by the governments, I made the necessary tickets[/quote]

Is consistency really so important in this case?
Some of those tickets seem to represent more nuanced situations than ‘Czech Republic’ > ‘Czechia’.

Honestly though, I can’t say I really care, we can always change them back without data loss, the only thing I really care about is being able to easily find things in the country drop down list (which some of those tickets might make tricky unless I’m mistaken?)

ps loving this discussion, interesting situation! and probably one with no ‘correct’ answer

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I live in Slovakia (right next to Czech Republic) and I have never seen “Czechia” used anywhere in any context. It’s the first time I see the word. I think that changing the name would confuse most people.

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I think The only two that may require a comment would be:

  • Korea (North)
  • Republic of Korea (South)
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Not true anymore, at least @InvisibleMan78, @lukz and me are not.

Most of these tickets propose to use official full name, whereas the current topic is about using official short name. See both names for some countries (according to the Publications Office of the European Union): Publications Office – Interinstitutional Style Guide – 7.1. Countries – 7.1.1. Designations and abbreviations to use

I would prefer to avoid untranslatable comment if possible and “stick with the most common/recognizable name” as @SURIV wrote.

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One argument that came to mind in my semi-sleep deprived state on my journey from the airport and to the office this morning:
Artist Intent

“But @Freso, Czech{ia, Republic} isn’t an artist!”

Indeed, you are right. But just as we now call Puff Daddy/P. Diddy “Diddy” because that’s what he wants to be called, even if he might still be mostly know by either of his former aliases, the government of “Czechia” has declared that they want people to refer to the landmass that they have declared authority over as “Czechia” in English, so should we not consider this “Area Intent” and follow their request?

I’m not personally convinced, and feel like arguments by @lukz and others weigh more, so for now I’ve changed my vote to “No”.

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No, I took care to use the short names as given in ISO 3166.

Still, most of these short names are longer than names MB currently holds.

P.S. If you can not reach the link I posted, here is an archived version.

I haven’t claimed the opposite?

[quote=“jesus2099, post:9, topic:199906”]aerozol:
the only thing I really care about is being able to easily find things in the country drop down list (which some of those tickets might make tricky unless I’m mistaken?)

I think The only two that may require a comment would be:

Korea (North)

Republic of Korea (South)
[/quote]

I mean because I would search for those countries by typing in “South…” and “North…” and probably “Tanzania” rather than “Republic of…” etc
Putting a comment at the end helps identify it, but still makes it hard to find.

If I’m right in thinking that this will effect the drop down list when setting release country.
Czech Republic > Czechia doesn’t have this practical issue which is why I’m not really bothered :slight_smile:

If we were to use the full country names as given by their governments, then the United States should be renamed as the United States of America, Mexico as the United Mexican States, France as the French Republic, Switzerland as the Swiss Confederation, Iran as the Islamic Republic of Iran and so on. I vote No on all of these renames (and those proposed in AREQ-1378 thru AREQ-1385) because it would make this site much harder to use (the country drop down list that aerozol gave is one example) and it would lead to confusion since those names are generally not used much outside of government documents and functions.

As an alternative, I propose creating a new alias category for areas and call it something like “official name” where most if not all of the proposed names can be added.

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We already have it, it’s called “Formal name” :slight_smile:

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4 posts were split to a new topic: Localized area names

If we are to use the full country name as given for the government, then Czech Republic should be “Czech Republic”. “Czechia”, as the proposed change is, is not a new “full country name”, but a short name that the Czech Republic would like people to use instead of the formal name of the country, “Czech Republic”. I’d vote no on all of @chirlu’s edits too (well, at least on this matter :wink: ), but your argument does not really apply to both the edit by @reosarevok and the edits by @chirlu.

Correct, my argument was against @chirlu’s edits, not @reosarevok’s. I saw the tickets that @chirlu had opened for those renames and just wanted to voice my opinion about them somewhere where the topic was being discussed.

This eventually failed (although it was close). So let’s stick to Czech Republic for now, and revisit if the usage of Czechia rises :slight_smile:

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I am not a location editor but I think the use of Czechia as a shorthand for the Czech Republic has risen enough in English language media that edit #43111786 might merit revisiting. Some relevant links:


https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ez.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=czechia+or+czech+republic&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjE3baxmY3jAhWVJTQIHU6JAWIQ_AUIECgB&biw=1920&bih=1057

Thoughts?

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Recently this has been brought up again:

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Entered an open edit again to see if the opinions have changed! :slight_smile: Edit #92223665 - MusicBrainz

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