Outdated country names and inconsistencies in en/address.yml

[Oli0li]

Describe the bug

While looking at lib/locales/en/address.yml, I noticed some small issues as follows:

Some country names are not up to date:

• Cape Verde was renamed "Cabo Verde" in 2013 (https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states/cabo-verde)

• Swaziland was renamed "Eswatini" in 2018 (see UN website: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states/eswatini)

• Macedonia, which is also registered in #country_by_code as "Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic Of", was renamed "North Macedonia" in 2019
  https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states/yugoslavia

• Turkey changed its spelling to "Türkiye" in 2022
  https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states/turkiye

This is only an issue in the English locale, as the French one has no country name and the Japanese is already up to date.

Case/spelling inconsistency:

• The countries listed as keys in "country_by_name" are all in snake case, except for "solomon Islands" and "wallis And Futuna".
• The "Virgin Islands, U.S." listed in "country" is listed as "Virgin Islands, U.s." in the country_by_code's corresponding value.

Expected behavior

I would suggest to make some changes as follows:

country names:
"Cape Verde" -> "Cabo Verde"
"Macedonia" -> "North Macedonia"
"Swaziland" -> "Eswatini"
"Turkey" -> "Türkiye"

country_by_code keys:
cape_verde -> cabo_verde
swaziland -> eswatini
macedonia_the_former_yugoslav_republic_of -> north_macedonia
solomon Islands -> solomon_islands
turkey -> türkiye
wallis And Futuna -> wallis_and_futuna

country_by_code values:
"Cape Verde" -> "Cabo Verde"
"Swaziland" -> "Eswatini"
"Virgin Islands, U.s." -> "Virgin Islands, U.S."
"Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic Of" -> "North Macedonia"
"Turkey" -> "Türkiye"

I am happy to open a PR if you think this would be worth changing.

Additional context

Here's a reference for countries that have changed their names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_renaming#List_of_significant_name_changes
The ones I mentioned do not seem to have changed their country code as far as I can tell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1

[sudeeptarlekar]

Thanks @Oli0li for noticing this 🙇🏼

[UmaeerH]

Not an language expert but isn't "Türkiye" the Turkish term whilst "Turkey" is the English term to refer to the country

[Oli0li]

Not an language expert but isn't "Türkiye" the Turkish term whilst "Turkey" is the English term to refer to the country

I think it is true that the spelling "Turkey" is still the most widely used by English speakers because this change is recent, not everybody is aware of it, and the old spelling is still accepted by English-language dictionaries. But the government of Turkey/Türkiye specifically asked that the new spelling be used in English because they dislike the association of the old spelling with the animal and other negative meanings of the word "turkey". Here are some sources:

Article by The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/03/turkey-changes-name-to-turkiye-as-other-name-is-for-the-birds

More explanations with sources on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey

UN website: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states/turkiye

Merriam Webster dictionary referring to "Türkiye" as the official name: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/turkey#geographicalDictionary

But as you can see, the Guardian, Wikipedia, dictionaries are still using the spelling "Turkey" even if they are aware/recognise that there is now a new official spelling for it.

The same holds true for Cape Verde/Cabo Verde. The government of Cabo Verde made an official request to the UN requesting that the country be now known as "Cabo Verde" across all languages:

Article about this in the Boston Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/02/10/cape-verde-asks-world-call-cabo-verde/LoHX9VhfzljfmnrY9I8xeM/story.html

UN: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states/cabo-verde#:~:text=The%20Republic%20of%20Cabo%20Verde,Representative%20to%20the%20United%20Nations.

Merriam-Webster dictionary recognising "Cabo Verde" as a valid name: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cabo%20verde

But still, many websites including the Boston Globe or Wikipedia are still using "Cape Verde" even though they are aware of the change.

So in the end this is a question about if we want Faker to display official names as recognised by the UN and requested by said countries, or if we're happy keeping it as names that are still commonly used even though they are not the official names. I had noticed the name of Swaziland, which is definitely not used anymore by news outlets, was outdated, and thought I would take this opportunity to bring up potential issues with names of any country that officially changed their name to check if these were worth changing too.

[UmaeerH]

Not an language expert but isn't "Türkiye" the Turkish term whilst "Turkey" is the English term to refer to the country

I think it is true that the spelling "Turkey" is still the most widely used by English speakers because this change is recent, not everybody is aware of it, and the old spelling is still accepted by English-language dictionaries. But the government of Turkey/Türkiye specifically asked that the new spelling be used in English because they dislike the association of the old spelling with the animal and other negative meanings of the word "turkey". Here are some sources:

Oh that is very interesting, I wonder how they'd treat the ü as it's not used in English word

[Oli0li]

Oh that is very interesting, I wonder how they'd treat the ü as it's not used in English word

Yes, for sure, just using to the old spelling makes things easier in that regard! 😅