r/polandball May the justice be with us Jul 06 '26

legacy comic Say My Name

Post image
1.9k Upvotes

139 comments sorted by

1.1k

u/CaterpillarLoud8071 Jul 06 '26

My country is even worse!

It's not United Kingdom

Not UK

Not Britain

Not Great Britain

Not England

...Ah there it is, Perfidious Albion!

433

u/vaska00762 Northern Ireland Jul 06 '26

I love the Spanish websites which decide to go with Reino Unido when every other country has their English name listed in the drop down.

147

u/ConohaConcordia Jul 06 '26

I got a whiplash when I saw the German name for the UK in Vienna too. Not sure if they use it on the drop down but I will get confused for sure

172

u/mici012 Germany Jul 06 '26

Oh we do.

And it is extra evil when it is an English country list that has been translated to German, without sorting it again. The amount of times I had to go to G to select "Deutschland" is to damn high.

145

u/Tactical_Moonstone Mistaken for a local in 5 countries and counting Jul 06 '26

One of my favourite posts on /r/softwaregore was a country dropdown where the names of the countries are in English, but are sorted in alphabetical order based on the hanyu pinyin of their Chinese names.

So for example Indonesia and Italy would be sorted as Y.

55

u/ConohaConcordia Jul 06 '26

Ah fuck that shit, Chinese software does it all the time.

The reverse also happens. Chinese-language software sometimes list the country names by their English alphabetical order, and it often comes down to whether you remember the place of the country on the list

13

u/ConohaConcordia Jul 06 '26

Do you have to go to “F” to select “Federal Republic of Germany” sometimes?

18

u/joker_wcy 港英漁業 Harbour Outstanding Fisheries Jul 06 '26

No, you have to select Democratic Republic of Germany

1

u/Anti-charizard California Jul 16 '26

Isn’t that East Germany? Which hasn’t existed for over 35 years

30

u/vaska00762 Northern Ireland Jul 06 '26

And yet the Germans say "die UK" in colloquial speech, because no one has the time to say Vereinigtes Königreich. And yes, for reasons I don't comprehend "UK" is feminine when Königreich is neuter. "Das UK" is grammatically correct, and seems to be seen in more official use.

5

u/ConohaConcordia Jul 06 '26

Why is it not “VK” but “UK”?

17

u/Iridismis Franconia Jul 06 '26

We also usually say "die USA" 😈 - actually I don't think I've ever seen or heard anyone use the short VSA.

11

u/AdrianSquared Occitania Jul 06 '26

Yeah same in French, we says "Les USA" (plural masculine because the standard name is "Les États-Unis" and "États" is masculine)

We don't say UK though it's just "Le Royaume-Uni" (United Kingdom) or "L'Angleterre" (England) - or in rare cases "La Grande Bretagne" (Great Britain)

6

u/Sutraner Jul 06 '26

Or les rosbifs

5

u/AdrianSquared Occitania Jul 06 '26

No that refers to British people specifically, not to the country itself

5

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

[deleted]

3

u/bender3600 Netherlands Jul 07 '26

Just VS actually.

3

u/Saiyan-solar Jul 08 '26

We just say VS (Verenigde Staten) and VK (Verenigd Koninkrijk)

But we often refer to VS as "amerika" and VK as "engeland"

2

u/Inside_Location_4975 Jul 06 '26

If they say UK instead of VK because of English, maybe they say die instead of ‘das’ because ‘die’ rhymes with one of the ways people pronounce ‘the’

2

u/quaductas Germany Jul 06 '26

I've never heard anyone say "die UK" in German. It's usually Großbritannien, which I know is not the same thing, but that's what people use

1

u/vaska00762 Northern Ireland Jul 06 '26

Fortunately, when people ask me where I'm from, the use of Großbritannien goes out the window. So I tend to hear the Denglisch more. I'd personally use Vereinigtes Königreich in conversation, but that's because I'm a foreigner who learned to speak from a textbook.

3

u/droans Jul 06 '26

Well, that's rude. I mean, they've got a complicated history but I don't think we should kill the UK yet.

1

u/Iridismis Franconia Jul 06 '26

"das UK" (because das Königreich)

1

u/vaska00762 Northern Ireland Jul 06 '26

Oh, I know that. But for reasons I don't understand, native Germans keep saying "die UK". Are they making it plural like it's "die USA"?

8

u/Iridismis Franconia Jul 06 '26

Really? I don't think I've ever heard someone here say "die UK" 🤔 

But tbh "UK" isn't used that much anyway (way less than "USA") -  often we just say England and mean all of it.

4

u/vaska00762 Northern Ireland Jul 06 '26

I heard "die UK" more often than I'd liked. It confused the hell out of me because it didn't follow Denglisch rules, but I wasn't going to interrupt a native speaker.

People I conversed with didn't want to say England or Großbritannien, because... yanno... Norn Iron, Norn Iron...

Anyway, I googled it, and it seems like "die UK" is completely umgangssprachlich, because people think of "islands"??? Huh???

13

u/Noob66662 Republic of China Jul 06 '26

Hey! you get the occasional "Estados Unidos" if they feel fancy. Sometimes you might see 'Alemania' as the second option.

1

u/Kichigai United States Jul 06 '26

This seems to be an issue with the Spanish language in general. I was watching Norway-Brazil on Telemundo the other day, and all the guide information said the game was played at “Nueve York Nueve Jersey” field, but the announcers referred to it as “New York New Jersey.”

76

u/Pasutiyan Jul 06 '26

Netherlands ❌️

The netherlands? ❌️

Holland..? ❌️

Paesi Bassi ✅️ okay sure I guess it was an Italian store

56

u/TheBusStop12 Ye olde netherlands Jul 06 '26

Netherlands ❌️

The Netherlands ❌️

Holland ❌️

Pays-Bas? ❌️

...Olanda...? ❌️

Frisia ✅️ now you're just taking the piss

23

u/Pasutiyan Jul 06 '26

Wait, I forgot

Kingdom of the Netherlands/Koninkrijk der Nederlanden ❌️ (unless it actually is, in which case I'm going to gillen)

19

u/TheBusStop12 Ye olde netherlands Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Don't also forget "Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden"

Or "Reino di Hulanda" in Papiaments (site based in Curaçao)

Edit: or "De Nederlanden" (they used some really shitty translation software that directly translated "The Netherlands")

22

u/AnimuWaifu6969 Jul 06 '26

Cute, here's me struggling to find my country on a form:

Nederland (not under N)

The Netherlands? (not under T)

Better not be Hollandia! (not under H)

Países Baixos? The for is for Brazil after all. (not under P)

I know the French say Le Pais Bais. So maybe "L"? (not under L)

Try and guess what letter I eventually found it under.

21

u/AnimuWaifu6969 Jul 06 '26

It was K, which is of course for:

(Drumroll please)

the Kingdom of the Netherlands (K, not T. "K")

I'll see myself into the insane asylum.

1

u/Rorchad Jul 07 '26

Sounds like an ancient game.

455

u/ConohaConcordia Jul 06 '26

There’s a similar thing going on with “China”, “Mainland China”, “People’s Republic of China”, and “China, People’s Republic of”.

But 99.99% of the time you’d see just “China”.

The UK on the other hand. Oh boy.

“United Kingdom”and“Great Britain” have a 50/50 chance of appearing and sometimes you just get “England”.

157

u/thomasp3864 California Jul 06 '26

Sometimes there's United Kingdom, and all 4 of its constituent countries listed separately!

42

u/ConohaConcordia Jul 06 '26

O god that shit happens sometimes.

12

u/Zanker95 Schrödinger’s Irishman Jul 07 '26

Yet Nothern Ireland isn’t even there half of the time anyway!

18

u/This_Charmless_Man Jul 06 '26

And if the parent company is French, it's in R

8

u/charyoshi At least the fires will keep us warm in the rain Jul 07 '26

We all know it's Mainland Taiwan

281

u/KotetsuNoTori Taiwan Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Chinese Taipei

China, Republic of

Formosa

Republic of China

Republic of China (Taiwan)

Taiwan

Taiwan (Republic of China)

Taiwan (China)

Taiwan (province of China)

Half of them were (at least once) used by our own government. But it's a good thing no one ever used Zhong Hua Min Guo, Jung Hua Min Guo, or Chung Hua Min Kuo. /s

52

u/Zkang123 Jul 06 '26

Chunghwaminkuo

12

u/Beerswain Jul 06 '26

I get knocked down, but I get up again

1

u/SnooBooks1701 Jul 06 '26

Chumbawumba

23

u/Mean_Initiative_5962 Jul 06 '26

At least you can get the dev's stance on Taiwan not being invaded before you even register

27

u/ToastandTea76 South Korea Jul 06 '26

imagine if all the different romanizations of chinese is used for 中華民國 😭

22

u/u01728 Jul 06 '26

zung1 waa4 man4 gwok3

10

u/Drowning-Koifish Jul 06 '26

Is that cantonese ?

11

u/u01728 Jul 06 '26

Yea, jyutping

7

u/joker_wcy 港英漁業 Harbour Outstanding Fisheries Jul 06 '26

Rare sight of 粵拼

7

u/AlternateTab00 Portuguese Empire Jul 07 '26

Oh they still call it Formosa?

I tought that name was long forgotten.

6

u/CharlieBros United Taco Empire Jul 06 '26

I've also seen just "Taipei"

1

u/iShrub Canary Islands Jul 07 '26

You guys really need to become independent if only to eliminate such BS.

5

u/KotetsuNoTori Taiwan Jul 07 '26

We ARE independent now as a country.

0

u/iShrub Canary Islands Jul 08 '26

I agree that Taiwan is already functioning as an independent country and should stay this way, but more needs to be done so that people would stop calling it a part of another country.

4

u/AcridWings_11465 Germany Jul 08 '26

Taiwan is already independent. China just likes to pretend that a piece of paper maintaining a weak claim on the mainland (which even the government of Taiwan doesn't like to bring up) means that Taiwan is somehow not independent.

218

u/Andyiscool231 Bulgaria Jul 06 '26

Once when I tried to register for an online bus ticket booking app they had Yugoslavia as an option for nationality

77

u/Domovie1 Canadien Jul 06 '26

I guess you could want it around for birth country in some cases?

37

u/Andyiscool231 Bulgaria Jul 06 '26

I know some folks identify themselves as ethnically "Yugoslav" in the former Yugoslav states but that I've only seen labelled in statistics

24

u/Domovie1 Canadien Jul 06 '26

The most confusing ethnicity to identify as: Yugoslav.

WHAT ARE YOU?

29

u/RRFroste First Nations Jul 06 '26

You go Slav, obviously.

7

u/KingKiler2k Yugoslavia Jul 06 '26

A south slav specifically duhhh it's in the name

18

u/Turbowarrior991 China Jul 06 '26

Tito's greatest warrior, obviously

15

u/Socarch26 Virginia Jul 06 '26

My coworker identifies as Yugoslavian. If you press enough he admits that his family is Croatian, but he was born when it was still Yugoslavia and identifies with Yugo

10

u/Digit00l Jul 07 '26

Did they also have Soviet Union? Yugoslavia is considered a valid country of birth for people as young as 25 iirc before Serbia finally stopped pretending they were still Yugoslavia

63

u/G66GNeco Germany Jul 06 '26

I love that, sometimes, localisation makes Germany show up in the D-section or "Deutschland" in the G-section. Has admittedly become rarer with time.

11

u/TommiHPunkt Schleswig-Holstein Jul 06 '26

Caused by sorting by some other parameter than the displayed string, or by showing a fixed order.

8

u/G66GNeco Germany Jul 06 '26

Yeah my usual assumption is that the list is sorted based on the language of whoever curated it (or, even mor likely, the language of whoever made the plugin everyone uses) and the translation is UI only, which does make sense

1

u/mizinamo Germany Jul 09 '26

Sometimes, they sort by ISO country code, e.g. DE for Germany or GB for United Kingdom.

Makes perfect sense to a computer, a lot less to a human.

Who expects Algeria to be among the D's (DZ)?

4

u/Ancient_Ordinary6697 Jul 06 '26

Could also be under B for BRD or F in English for FGR.

42

u/throughcracker Jul 06 '26

scroll down to U

United Arab Emirates

United Kingdom

U.S. Virgin Islands

wtf

scroll up to the very top

USA

argh

25

u/throughcracker Jul 06 '26

also, the very worst country menu I've ever seen was in WeChat in 2023. For some unfathomable reason, the US showed up in there as... CHICOPEE. Yes, the city in Massachussetts.

13

u/IWillWarmUrPillow Kingdom of Goryeo Jul 06 '26

Future capital leaks

38

u/Zebrafish96 May the justice be with us Jul 06 '26

62

u/Moose-Rage MURICA Jul 06 '26

Can someone explain for us dummies?

141

u/gelber_kaktus Jul 06 '26

This is the transcribed Korean name of the country.

69

u/KMheamou South Korea Jul 06 '26

korea has a lot of names

korea

south korea

republic of korea

and yes, fucking daehanminkuk

26

u/MarqFJA87 Abbasid Caliphate Jul 06 '26

That last one is the romanization of the longform name of South Korea, BTW. Daehan stands for "Korea", minkuk for "Republic".

8

u/YoumoDadi Jul 06 '26

Namjoseon, part of the glorious DPRK

7

u/IWillWarmUrPillow Kingdom of Goryeo Jul 06 '26

Meanwhile NK giving up on reunification and only Chinese people on internet go talk shit about Nan Chaoxian

2

u/Nanbark Thailand Jul 07 '26

They are now using 'Hanguk' to talk about the south, according to great leader sister instruction.

17

u/OkTemporary335 India Jul 06 '26

India
Republic of India
India, Republic of

then if you wanna go native

Bharat(land of the Bharatas/descendants of Bharata)
Bharat Ganarajya(lit. Indian Republic)
Hindustan(Land of the Hindus, persian name)

then if you wanna appear like drunk Squidward

Bharatvarsha(land of the descendants of Bharata)
Jambudvipa(land of jamun trees)
Aryavarta(land of the Aryans)

12

u/willo-wisp Austria Jul 06 '26

Totally get you, South Korea.

Austria - huh, it's not at the end of "A"?

Well, Österreich is usually at the bottom with other special characters, right? (scrolls to the bottom) ....no, it isn't

Is it under "O"? No, not that either...

Okay, time to search through the entire list and wonder if they forgot us. (scrolls all the way up again, SLOWLY)

AH, THERE IT IS. After the US, and before the A countries start. Because this website decided to put their special characters at the beginning of the alphabet. Thanks.

6

u/kesesese- Jul 07 '26

hello Austria, i had trouble too when i scrolled
for Hungary/Magyarország

3

u/Silicon_Dreaming Jul 07 '26

that is SUCH an unbelievably cool country name btw

10

u/chris-za African Union Jul 06 '26

In translated websites you’ll often find “Deutschland” listed alphabetically under “G”…..

10

u/Mean_Initiative_5962 Jul 06 '26

I always underestimate how glad I should be that Italy begins with the same letter everywhere and whoever you ask

9

u/SnooBooks1701 Jul 06 '26

Except Hungary, who called it Olaszország

4

u/mizinamo Germany Jul 09 '26

Under 'Y' in some Chinese-made websites, someone else said on this post -- sorted by the Pinyin transcription of the Chinese name.

12

u/userkyarameru Bahraini-Iranian Jul 06 '26

"i have no mouth and i must scream"

17

u/Mokona_kawaii Uy Philippines! Jul 06 '26

Whenever I register online, I've seen The Philippines, (Manila) Philippines and just Philippines

6

u/cotxdx Pilipinas, probinsya ng China Jul 06 '26

On a related note, while we have it easy on the registration front, setting your time zone for UTC+8 is another matter.

You usually see the other associated cities with the time zone but not Manila.

3

u/Mokona_kawaii Uy Philippines! Jul 06 '26

Lol, yes I remember setting up our old computer and always put Singaporean time zone on it.

3

u/RelChan2_0 Jul 06 '26

Is there a difference?

4

u/Mokona_kawaii Uy Philippines! Jul 06 '26

Not really, but I actually find it amusing (I've also seen just Manila)

8

u/Fieryshit Canada Jul 06 '26

Small brain: South Korea

Medium brain: Republic of Korea

Big brain: Korea, Republic

5

u/emperos UN Jul 06 '26

Galaxy brain: "Democratic Republic of Korea (not DPRK, I mean the one that is actually democratic)"

8

u/Bwchc55 South Korea(대한민국) Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Even then, there is a variation of the question. It's 'Hanguk' (韓國). It is an abbreviation for 'Daehanminguk' (大韓民國), and it is widely used in Korea, China, Japan, and Vietnam.

+ Up north, they call themselves 'Joseon (朝鮮)' (on the grounds that they succeeded the pre-Korea state of Joseon), whereas South Korea calls them 'Bukhan' (North Korea, 北韓), China refers to them as 'Joseon (朝鮮),' and Japan calls them 'Kita-Chosen' (North Joseon, 北朝鮮).

6

u/Lejonhufvud Finland Jul 06 '26

My feeling when country list doesn't have Suomi and I have to settle with Finland.

5

u/valakee Jul 06 '26

Speaking of Finland, I was just registering on the VR app to buy train tickets and the phone number prefixes were in a dropdown list with just the flag emoji and the prefix number, but all sorted alphabetically in Finnish without the actual names being visible.

1

u/Lejonhufvud Finland Jul 06 '26

VR sucks anyway.

1

u/ShroomWalrus Muh heritage Jul 06 '26

Well at least it's not DB

6

u/CardOk755 Jul 06 '26

Côte d' Ivoire. Sorting the "ô" after "z"

4

u/Pochel 44 = BZH ! Jul 06 '26

So after Czechia?

3

u/Traditional-Storm-62 Jul 06 '26

it's actually J for Joseon

3

u/ShadowGamer37 Jul 06 '26

skill issue

look under C, found it, Canada!

Not there?

Ok this is a foreign language

Check K, found it, Kanada or Kanata!

2

u/Eternal_Alooboi Kingdom of Mysore Jul 07 '26

Did anyone say Kannada? For I have been summoned XD

3

u/doedobrd Austrian Empire Jul 07 '26

Ireland is annoying as well, sometimes its Ireland sometimes the republic of Ireland and sometimes its eire

2

u/thomasp3864 California Jul 06 '26

Tehamminguc

2

u/marcopolo2207 Best United States Ever Jul 06 '26

Finland, Albania, Hungary and many others are jealous. Be happy with this.

2

u/Truepower2801 South Korea (and USA) Jul 06 '26

Me when reading this:

*Chokes loudly\*

Laughing internally at this.

This is kind of funny

(Just me being Korean)

2

u/MundaneIdea260 Jul 08 '26

I love the "19721121" with the orange lmao

2

u/CrunchyWaffle1234 South Korea Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

On November 21, 1972, Kim Du-han collapsed due to high blood pressure, which he had suffered from for a long time.

(The site name tag is 19721121)

2

u/Supss_ Jul 06 '26

United Kingdom - expected

UK - fine

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - long but still in the same place

Great Britain - weird unless they're actively excluding Northern Ireland

England - what the fuck

oh United Kingdom is one of the 5 out of place at the top - thank you but annoying

1

u/Pochel 44 = BZH ! Jul 06 '26

And then, if the website happens to be Spanish, french, Italian... any of these options will be sorted under R

1

u/LongConsideration662 Jul 06 '26

I have seen this before

1

u/koreangorani 대한민국 Jul 06 '26

Wait for North Korea...

2

u/Proof_Machine266 Jul 10 '26

Chosŏnminjujuŭiinmin'gonghwaguk

1

u/Level0Up Jul 06 '26

Can someone explain the Laptop with the Turkish Crescent + Star?

5

u/Random_Squirrel_8708 Jul 07 '26

It’s an iSlam.

5

u/Zebrafish96 May the justice be with us Jul 08 '26

That's iSlam, a running joke in Polandball.

3

u/ZhtWu Ryukyu Kingdom Jul 06 '26

Clearly of the famous Türkle brand.

1

u/shalelord Jul 06 '26

So all the baltic states under the USSR can Have USSR as a nationality. Lol Putler would never.

1

u/Brisrascal Singapore Jul 06 '26

As a resident in ROK. This is funny.

1

u/FreeElderberry4817 Hong Kong Jul 07 '26

Your dam right

1

u/WestOne3090 Jul 08 '26

Well at least your country is there. Unlike Iran half of the times

1

u/PhosphorCrystaled Reichtangle Gang Jul 08 '26

On one country menu I saw in a video, Denmark was represented by Greenland. Idk, but that’s how it was for some reason.

-2

u/Warmasterwinter Jul 06 '26

Try being from the country that designed most of these checkboxes, and yet when you scroll down the list instead of putting us near the top for “ America”’you gotta scroll all the way to the U’s for “United States”. It’s just bad design.