The Czech Republic is changing its name to Czechia to make it easier to sell beer
A statement put out by the president, prime minister and other senior officials says that the country will ask the UN to update their name on its official database in time for the Olympics this Summer.
Here's the statement.
The foreign ministry will ask the United Nations to include in its databases the correct equivalents of the country name in its official languages... We recommend using the single-word name in foreign languages in situations when it's not necessary to use the country's formal name: sports events, marketing purposes etc.
The official name for the country will remain as "Czech Republic," but Czechia will become the official shortened version of the name.
The country was established in 1993 when Czechoslovakia split into two countries - The Czech Republic and Slovakia. Because the name of the country is quite long, companies often brand their merchandise and with the word "Czech" to show which country their product comes from. One company that dies this is Pilsner Urquell beer which has "Brewed in Plezen - Czech" written on the bottle.
The problem with this is that the word "Czech" is an adjective so can't really be used as a proper noun.
Not everyone is happy with the change. The country's regional development minister Karla Slechtova tweeted on Tursday that she doesn't like the new name because people might confuse it with Chechnya.