Alternative names for South Africa

Meadow

Meadow

As names of countries go, 'South Africa' is one of the least original. It's quite nice-sounding, and is perfectly respectable name, but when you boil it down to its constituent parts, it's a geographic locator of an area of a continent. (And, at least in British schools, a regular cause of the 'but Africa's a country, miss, that's why there's a South Africa' error.)

Knowing less about Saffer history than I do about the Presidency of James K. Polk, I turn to you, AH.com, to ask whether there are or were any plausible names that South Africa could have taken during its... let's say 'varied' history. Either starting in the 1900s or when the nation basically hit the reset button in the 1990s, was there ever a 'road not traveled' when it came to the country's name? The flag changed, of course, and plenty of post-colonial states in Africa changed their names, often dramatically.

One inkling I have is that the name 'South Africa' was something of a 'Canberra option' - no one of the constituent names that made up early South Africa (eg Transvaal, Oranje Free State, or something like 'Boerland') could be seen to be dominating the others by being the name of the whole colony/union/republic. Is this why 'South Africa' was chosen, or at least stuck with?

So be they Afrikaans or Zulu, English or Sotho, come at me with your alternate names for everyone's favourite multi-capitaled African nation. Thanks in advance for any answers.
 

finnz

Azania is a post-apartheid name that you could have. It was used by anti-apartheid fighters as a native name for South Africa back during apartheid. Was originally a Greek/Roman name for southern/ eastern Africa during the ancient times but is more technically refering to the Kenya-Tanzania area rather than South Africa (I think).
 

Marius

Meadow said:
One inkling I have is that the name 'South Africa' was something of a 'Canberra option' - no one of the constituent names that made up early South Africa (eg Transvaal, Oranje Free State, or something like 'Boerland') could be seen to be dominating the others by being the name of the whole colony/union/republic. Is this why 'South Africa' was chosen, or at least stuck with?
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South Africa was the name for the region long before Union in 1910 - national teams called South Africa played rugby and cricket long before 1910.

I think the regional name broadly included places like Southern Rhodesia and Bechuanaland too. For example, British South Africa Company and British South Africa Police in the Rhodesias.

As you've pointed out, any other name (like 'Boerland') would have been a non-starter. Ignoring black South Africans (which the previous government was pretty good at) just less than half of white South Africans are English-speaking (and not even all Afrikaners necessarily identify as 'Boers').

I think the only way to get SA's name to not be South Africa in 1910 is perhaps have Natal become the name for a larger region, rather than just the east coast. I'm not sure how difficult that is though. By the same token, one can have the Cape become the name for a larger region, rather than just what it was in OTL.

Orania (or a variation there of) could work, but only if there is far less British influence and settlement in South Africa, the Napoleonic Wars could go differently perhaps.

Post-1994 it is also pretty difficult to get another name for SA. Azania has always been a favourite among some African nationalists, but this was the favoured name for SA by the Pan-African Congress. Although they were initially influential in the anti-apartheid struggle they lost their way somewhat in the 1980s and the ANC become the dominant anti-apartheid movement. In OTL Azania was too linked to the PAC, making it a non-starter.

I think calling the joint Azania is silly - it was never used to historically describe SA and is also a European name, it isn't what the original inhabitants of South Africa called the place.

Colloquially lots of people call SA Mzantsi, which is derived from the Xhosa for South Africa - Mzantsi Afrika, so that is a possibility too.
 
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