AHC: More eponymous countries named after a specific person

Challenge: Create more states that are named after a specific individual. The individual must exist in recorded history. The person should be alive during the creation of the country, or during the foundation of the colony that later gains independence as the country. Finally, the country must be named after the individual's given name, not a dynastic name.

For example
  • Bolivia (Simón Bolívar)
  • Chagatai Khanate (Chagatai Khan)
  • Lotharingia (King Lothair II)
  • Philippines (King Philip II)
  • Swaziland (King Mswati II)
  • Uzbekistan (Öz Beg Khan)
 
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Would a Virginia colony that develops differently gains independence alone count?

Seychelles, Kiribati and Marshall Islands I think fill this OTL.

A Dutch Australia that goes with Tasmania for the whole continent and then breaks off from the Netherlands could work.

Kinda implausible, but maybe Gibraltar pulls a Malta during decolonization. It's named after a seventh century Islamic general after all, and I believe it's had that name since he conquered Spain.

Probably wouldn't be too difficult to get a Rhodesia that treats the natives better and thus averts revolution.

Independent Bougainvillea would work too. Less plausible would be an independent Prince Edward's Island but it would count.

My last idea would be a Kaliningrad that goes independent following a worse USSR break up and keeps the name
 
  • Swaziland (King Mswati II)
On 19 April 2018, King Mswati III announced that the Kingdom of Swaziland had renamed itself the Kingdom of Eswatini, reflecting the extant Swazi name for the state eSwatini, to mark the 50th anniversary of Swazi independence. The new name, Eswatini, means "land of the Swazis" in the Swazi language, and was partially intended to prevent confusion with the similarly named Switzerland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eswatini#Independence_(1968–present)
 
My last idea would be a Kaliningrad that goes independent following a worse USSR break up and keeps the name
Could Kaliningrad be an independant SSR? If Kaliningrad was part of the Lithuanian SSR (and ethnically different from Lithuania proper) then maybe it can pull a Nagorno Karabakh?
 
David Porter and his expedition to the Marquesas is more successful, and eventually lead to American rule over French Polynesia under the name "Washington Islands". In the late 20th century, the US grants them independence under the Compact of Free Association as part of cost-cutting measures and because colonialism just doesn't look so good anymore. Thus is created the new Federation of the Washington Islands, a popular tourist destination for Americans.
 
When Canadian confederation took place, there was apparently a brief debate on the name of the new country and although Canada was always the strong favorite three of the alternative names put forward - Cabotia, Lawrentia and Victorialand - would have met this criterion.

For that matter, a failed Australian federation with the various colonies going the own way would give us a Tasmania and a Victoria - in fact, you probably wouldn't need to tweak the British Empire much to get quite a lot of Victorias out there.
 
Might be a little ASB, but more colonial nations keeping colonial names after independence, like Zimbabwe staying as Rhodesia.
 
Other OTL examples I've thought of:

the USA is technically named after Amerigo Vespucci.

Colombia after Columbus.

China, arguably, after Qin Shi Huangdi

The name El Salvador is obviously a reference to Yeshua ben Yosef, but I'm not sure if it counts as being named after someone or not.

AH Possibilities:

--Galicia could become an independent duchy or kingdom at some point, requiring a medieval POD. According to legend, it's named after Goidel Glas.

--Plenty of possibilities exist for city-states. Perhaps Lvov becomes a neutral city similar to the Free State of Krakow at some point, according to legend, it's named after Lev, a son of a Rus' prince. The same could be true of Constantinople, probably during the Turkish civil war if you nerf Ataturk a bit (likely Constantinopolis becomes a LoN protectorate that's de facto Greek).
 
Other OTL examples I've thought of:

the USA is technically named after Amerigo Vespucci.

Colombia after Columbus.

China, arguably, after Qin Shi Huangdi

The name El Salvador is obviously a reference to Yeshua ben Yosef, but I'm not sure if it counts as being named after someone or not.

AH Possibilities:

--Galicia could become an independent duchy or kingdom at some point, requiring a medieval POD. According to legend, it's named after Goidel Glas.

--Plenty of possibilities exist for city-states. Perhaps Lvov becomes a neutral city similar to the Free State of Krakow at some point, according to legend, it's named after Lev, a son of a Rus' prince. The same could be true of Constantinople, probably during the Turkish civil war if you nerf Ataturk a bit (likely Constantinopolis becomes a LoN protectorate that's de facto Greek).
Challenge: Create more states that are named after a specific individual. The individual must exist in recorded history. The person should be alive during the creation of the country, or during the foundation of the colony that later gains independence as the country. Finally, the country must be named after the individual's given name, not a dynastic name.

For example
  • Bolivia (Simón Bolívar)
  • Chagatai Khanate (Chagatai Khan)
  • Lotharingia (King Lothair II)
  • Philippines (King Philip II)
  • Swaziland (King Mswati II)
  • Uzbekistan (Öz Beg Khan)
Unfortunately for the USA-Amerigo one, that was more indirect and Vespucci was long dead long before the Eastern Seaboard was colonised by the British.

Columbia the same.

As for China, that's an exonym that's quite different from the Mandarin endonym 中国 (Zhōngguó), which is not based on any individual's name (and, seeing as Qin was the dynastic name, the exonym still wouldn't count).

If King Dan is not simply legend and Denmark (Danmark) was named after him, then Denmark would possibly count.

Generally colonies would be the easiest approach, as would counting legendary figures (Belarus and Russia with Rus of the three Slavic brothers myth), and just using endonyms (Lechia/Poland with Lech, another of the three brothers). Lotharingia surviving would give another (Lothair) and various minor islands going independent could do the trick too.
 
--Plenty of possibilities exist for city-states. Perhaps Lvov becomes a neutral city similar to the Free State of Krakow at some point, according to legend, it's named after Lev, a son of a Rus' prince. The same could be true of Constantinople, probably during the Turkish civil war if you nerf Ataturk a bit (likely Constantinopolis becomes a LoN protectorate that's de facto Greek).

Kraków according to a legend is nemed after king Krak. Warsaw and Wrocław, both giving names to multiple duchies are named after people. Not sure about various Vladimirs or Yaroslavs.
 
Italy adopts the name Rome.

Greece fulfills the challenge OTL, Hellas is named after the Greek Prince Hellen.

In all likelyhood, both proper names are mythological post-facto back-projections of the ethnic-city names, as either Romolus and Hellen very likely did not exist as actual inviduals.
If you accept eponyms of this sort, well, Israel IOTL counts, as does Britain (from Brutus) and Romania (on the same basis as Rome). Also, IIRC, the Nahua etymology of Mexico includes a personal name+locative.

There was a proposal times to call what would become Nigeria "Goldesia" after Goldie, the Briton who organised the colony (IIRC). Likewise, you could have African counries called "Lugardia", "Leopoldia", and the like.
 
Might be a little ASB, but more colonial nations keeping colonial names after independence, like Zimbabwe staying as Rhodesia.

Even better: various bits of British Africa have been called South Rhodesia, North-East Rhodesia, and North-West Rhodesia. Keep these names in use, and that's three countries named after old Cecil alone.
 
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