Talk:List of sovereign states

Somaliland

Somaliland should be added to the list, as it has recently gained recognition from a U.N. member state (Israel). TheLazyDog2011 (talk) 01:29, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

It's already on the list? TheLegendofGanon (talk) 01:37, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

Yes, it's already listed under "Other States." AuH2ORepublican (talk) 15:39, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

Ohh sorry didnt notice that lol

Was only looking at the main list, totally on me TheLazyDog2011 (talk) 18:21, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

Palestine inclusion

Hey, I’m wondering why y’all said “occupied” instead of “disputed”, because the people of Palestine don’t recognize them part of Israel. I’m a jew, myself, and I find this wording more offensive. Will one of you change it? Erpagitheeditor (talk) 18:53, 28 February 2026 (UTC)

"Occupied" doesn't imply Palestine is part of Israel. Quite the opposite, in fact. By definition, a military occupation is not part of the occupying power. Not to mention that "disputed" is less accurate. Israel doesn't formally claim Palestine, except East Jerusalem, so it's not really disputed in the traditional sense. TheLegendofGanon (talk) 19:51, 28 February 2026 (UTC)

Common and formal names

I would suggest replacing "formal" with "descriptive" because I don't think it's correct to state that the formal name of the United Kingdom is "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" while the formal name of Ireland is just "Ireland". I would argue that "United Kingdom" is the official name while "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" is the official description. See Talk:United States/FAQ where is is pointed out that the "of America" is arguably just a prepositional phrase that describes the location of the United States and is not actually part of the country's name. Obviously there are some like Ukraine that don't have a long name but I think we should change these terms from "formal" to something more accurate. As far as the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" goes I'd never heard that term until I came to Wikipedia and probably wouldn't even know it refers to the United Kingdom on the other hand I'd only heard the Republic of Ireland called that or "Southern Ireland" (which I heard the term isn't liked). The UK government almost never uses "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" and doesn't appear to advocate it's use. Crouch, Swale (talk) 19:34, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

"United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" is the formal name as used by the UK government. It is the name they submit to places like the UN. "Formal" is a common term for these official/long-form names. CMD (talk) 03:03, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

I think most people would expect/understand "formal" to mean the opposite of informal namely the likes of slang or otherwise names that aren't complete. Crouch, Swale (talk) 22:08, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

SADR common name

Why was SADR entry changed to the shorten “Sahrawi Republic”? I can’t find any discussion and justification for it.

The consensus on SADR talk page is to not move, since the full name and acronym are much more common and recognizable, and the shorten form is usually only used after earlier mentions of SADR itself. The actual common name, if any, would be Western Sahara for the region, so an entry for the state itself should simply be “Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic”, like before the change. ~2026-29952-73 (talk) 21:39, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

 Done PharaohCrab speak𓀁 works𓀨 22:49, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Thank you. Should the mentions in the Further Information column be changed back also? ~2026-29952-73 (talk) 10:16, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

An idea for a way the Czech republic could be listed

As I understand it, a short name and a common name are not necessarily the same thing and while the short name of the Czech Republic is Czechia but the common name is still the Czech Republic so I had the idea to list the Czech Republic with the short name as Czechia but then bolding and linking the formal name part of the cell as the formal name is the common name.

This might look weird as no other nation is listed like this but I think it may work well for the Czech Republic's peculiar circumstance and would like to see other editors thoughts on this.

Example of what I am proposing

C	Cyprus – Republic of Cyprus	A UN member state	Not recognised by Turkey	Member of the EU. The northeastern part of the island is the de facto state of Northern Cyprus. Cyprus is not recognised by Turkey due to the Cyprus problem, with Turkey recognising Northern Cyprus.
	Czechia – Czech Republic	A UN member state	A None	Member of the EU.
D	Denmark – Kingdom of Denmark	A UN member state	A None	Member of the EU. The Kingdom of Denmark includes two self-governing territories: Faroe Islands Greenland The metropolitan territory of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland form the three constituent countries of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of Denmark as a whole is a member of the EU, but EU law (in most cases) does not apply to the Faroe Islands and Greenland. See Greenland and the European Union, and Faroe Islands and the European Union.

PharaohCrab speak𓀁 works𓀨 03:18, 21 June 2026 (UTC)

I appreciate the effort put into this proposal, but I believe it could be confusing to most readers. It's also worth taking into account that this proposal, if implemented, should also apply to the SADR:

S	Sahrawi Republic – Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

Nice4What (talk · contribs) ♥ 14:26, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

Not sue it would need to be done for the SDAR if my proposal is approved but would also have to be done for the FSM and maybe even both Congos. PharaohCrab speak𓀁 works𓀨 16:23, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

Unrelated but the 2 Congos are reversed in order now due to an edit that changed them to Congo and Congo, DR.

Also the 2 Koreas are kinda in a similar situation. For the longest time they were listed under K, as Korea, North and South, respectively. The consensus established on multiple past topics was that this is the exact same case as the Congos (same short name, different only in official title).

The short names of these two are both just Korea, as opposed to the other countries with North/South as an integral part of their names. In this case, North/South are just informal disambiguators, hence the difference in listing (the formal way would also put DPRK before the ROK anyway).

I checked the edit history and there was an edit a while ago that changed to list these 4 under their long form names (the Congos under D/R and the Koreas under N/S). A later edit reversed the change made to the Congos, but didn’t catch the Koreas. So I suggest listing them both under K for consistency, and also to match with general past consensus on this Talk page. ~2026-36808-81 (talk) 00:50, 27 June 2026 (UTC)

@PharaohCrab List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe. And it works. For years. Chrz (talk) 08:58, 28 June 2026 (UTC)