Real Girls: Only two countries start with this common word


	November 12, 2024

Original photo by Farhad Ibrahimzade/ iStock

Only two countries have names that start with "the."

There are only two countries in the world whose official names start with the word "the": The Bahamas in the Caribbean and The Gambia in West Africa. The Bahamas is also officially known as the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, but the nation is formally referenced as simply "The Bahamas" many times in its constitution. Similarly, The Gambia's name is technically the Republic of The Gambia, but it's almost exclusively referred to as just "The Gambia" in its constitution.

In both cases, the countries were named after geographical features, hence the inclusion of definite articles in their names. The Bahamas was named after an island chain of the same name, which was (and still is) always referred to using "the." The Gambia, meanwhile, was named by Portuguese explorers after the Gambia River. When the nation achieved independence in 1965, it held onto the word "the" as part of an effort to differentiate it from the similar-sounding Zambia, which achieved independence one year prior.

There are some countries that include "the" in the middle of their official names, including Democratic Republic of the Congo, and other countries — such as the Maldives and the Solomon Islands — that are often referred to using "the" even though the word is not officially part of the name. El Salvador is unique in that its name begins with "the" but in a different language, as "el" is Spanish for "the."

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		Numbers Don't Lie

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No sovereign nations begin with the letters "w" or "x" in English.

In the English language, the names of all the world's sovereign nations begin with 24 of the 26 letters — none begins with the letters "w" or "x." (There are, however, some uncommon letters that begin the name of only one country, such as "o," "q," and "y" in the names Oman, Qatar, and Yemen.) This wasn't always the case, though. From 1825 until 1917, the United States recognized the sovereign state of Württemberg, which is now part of Germany. Additionally, the country of Samoa was known as Western Samoa from 1962 until 1997, when its name changed to reflect its new status as an independent nation. The "w" and "x" rule, of course, only applies to English. In the Catalan language, for instance — which is spoken in parts of Spain, Italy, France, and Andorra — several countries start with "x," including Xile (Chile), Xina (China), and Xipre (Cyprus).

Today's edition of Interesting Facts was written by Bennett Kleinman and edited by Brooke Robinson.