>Hilmar,
>
>As an aside, how does the renaming of a country come about? Someone just decides and it is done? Just curious...
I don't know for sure - probably it must pass through the congress, or something.
One case I find interesting, of a country being renamed is "Upper Volta". I assume the name was given by the invaders (colonizing nations). Eventually, some time after obtaining their independence, they decided to rename it to a name in their local language, "Burkina Faso" (Land of the Upright People).
I think that several other countries (and major cities) have been renamed in the last few decades, and it is difficult to keep up-to-date.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)