The tiny Pacific island nation formerly known as Nauru is now officially Naoero, reclaiming its traditional name, pronunciation, and cultural identity.
The tiny South Pacific nation formerly known as Nauru officially changed its name at the United Nations on Sunday, during the 81st session of the General Assembly. The change was announced by President David Adeang.
President Adeang said the country would revert to the name its people used in the past: Naoero. “There are moments in the life of a nation when its people are called to remember who they have always been. This is such a moment for us,” he told the General Assembly.
“For many years, the world has known our country as Nauru,” said Adeang. “Nauru is how our name sounded to those who found it hard to say, and the world kept it. But it is not the name our people used among themselves. I rise on my first point not to announce a change, but to affirm a truth. Long before our country took its place among the family of nations—long before our name appeared on international records—our people knew our homeland by one name: Naoero. That name carries the memory of our ancestors, our language, and our identity. It has been there all along. Never lost, never absent. Today, we restore Naoero.”
The former name was pronounced Now-roo, and the new one is pronounced Now-ero. The demonym of Nauruan will change to dei-Naoero.
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Naoero is one of the world’s smallest countries. Comprised of a single, eight-square-mile island in the western Pacific, the country has a population of approximately 12,000, which makes it the world’s third-smallest sovereign state, following the Vatican and Tuvalu. The country gained independence from Australia in 1968, and remains a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, but unlike many Commonwealth nations, it is a republic and does not recognize the British sovereign. The president is the head of state in Naoero.
The country receives only a trickle of tourism each year. The country has the distinction of being one of the least-visited sovereign countries in the world, with some estimates putting the number of inbound visitors at less than 200 annually. The only airline serving the small airport is Nauru Airlines (brand names do not automatically change to reflect the country’s new official name; they must be changed separately) from a handful of destinations in the western Pacific, including Brisbane, Australia, and Nadi, Fiji.
Several countries have changed names in the past few years. Turkey changed the official spelling of its name to Türkiye in 2022. Macedonia changed its name to North Macedonia in 2019, following political disputes with neighboring Greece, which has a region also called Macedonia. Swaziland changed its name to Eswatini, its original Swazi name instead of the name given to it by Europeans, and the Czech Republic registered the short-form geographic name Czechia in 2016, but kept Czech Republic as the country’s formal name.
Naoero was first settled by Micronesians around 1000 BCE, and the modern Nauruan language is closely related to Micronesian. The country’s economy is largely dependent on foreign aid; its primary exports are frozen fish and phosphates. The country’s government also leases the country’s skipjack tuna fishing grounds to foreign fishing boats.