The Pacific island nation formerly known as Nauru has officially changed its name to the Republic of Naoero, restoring the country’s traditional Indigenous name and aligning its international identity with the pronunciation and spelling used in the local language.
President David Adeang announced that the country’s official international designation will now be Naoero, describing the move as an important step in honoring the nation’s cultural heritage, language and identity.
He also said the country’s international identification codes will be updated and that citizens, previously referred to as Nauruans, will now be known as Naoero.
According to the government, the change marks a return to the country’s historic name, which has always been used by local people but was replaced internationally with “Nauru” to make pronunciation easier for foreigners.
President Adeang first introduced the proposal in Parliament in January, arguing that adopting the traditional name would better reflect the country’s history and strengthen its national identity. The measure was later approved in two parliamentary votes.
Home to around 12,000 people, Naoero is the world’s third-smallest sovereign state by population, behind only Vatican City and Tuvalu.
The island was formerly a German colony before coming under Australian administration and gained independence in 1968.
Naoero enjoyed significant prosperity during the 1970s from phosphate mining, but the collapse of the industry in the 1990s plunged the country into a prolonged economic crisis.
Today, the low-lying Pacific nation is considered one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change and rising sea levels.
To address those threats, the government is pursuing a citizenship-by-investment program aimed at attracting foreign capital to finance the relocation of communities and critical infrastructure to safer areas.
President Adeang said the renaming represents “a new beginning for national pride.”
Although authorities initially considered holding a national referendum on the issue, the government later decided that extensive public consultation had made a referendum unnecessary.
Officials emphasized that the name Naoero has never disappeared from domestic use. It has long appeared in the country’s constitution, national symbols and local language, making the change an official recognition of an identity already embraced by its people.
The move places Naoero among a growing number of countries that have adopted traditional names in place of internationally recognized colonial-era designations. Recent examples include Eswatini, which replaced Swaziland in 2018, and Türkiye, which adopted its Turkish-language name for international use in 2022.
The government said the country’s national airline and maritime registry will also be updated to reflect the new name. It has formally requested international recognition of the change, adding that organizations including the United Nations, as well as the governments of Australia, New Zealand, the United States and China, have already begun referring to the country as Naoero on their official platforms.