LAGOS, Nigeria. (Voice Of Naija) The Pacific island nation of Nauru, the world’s third-smallest country by population, has officially changed its name to the Republic of Naoero, restoring a traditional identity stripped away during European colonial rule more than a century ago because foreign settlers found the original name too difficult to pronounce.
According to ABC News, President David Adeang confirmed the shift, which aligns the country’s English designation with the spelling and pronunciation used in its national language. Parliament passed a constitutional amendment in May 2026 to enact the change, and plans for a national referendum were subsequently dropped.
“The decision not to pursue a referendum was reached after thoughtful deliberation that Naoero is not a new name seeking acceptance by the people,” Adeang said. “It is already the identity of the people, is on the national coat of arms, and spoken in the community; and importantly is allowed by the constitution.”
The country’s international code will change from NRU to NRO, and its people will be known as dei-Naoero rather than Nauruan.
The pronunciation, commonly known abroad as “Now-roo,” has been replaced by “Now-ero.” The United Nations has already begun updating its records, as have the foreign ministries of Australia, New Zealand and the United States, as well as the Chinese embassy in the region. The renaming also extends to the country’s aircraft and ships.
According to Roya News, when he first proposed the constitutional amendment in January, Adeang framed the move as a matter of cultural fidelity. The country became known internationally as Nauru only because its local name was difficult for foreigners to pronounce, a matter of colonial convenience rather than a choice made by its people.
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The President emphasised that the change is about identity and heritage rather than politics, explaining that restoring the name honours the legacy of Naoero’s ancestors while helping strengthen the country’s future for younger generations, describing the move as “the beginning of renewed national pride.”
Naoero is not alone in this journey. As Time Out noted, Swaziland returned to its original name of Eswatini in 2018. Turkey formally became Türkiye in 2022. The renaming of countries with colonial-era English designations has become a quiet but steady global trend as post-colonial nations reclaim the identities their ancestors held before European settlement rewrote their maps.
With 12,000 residents, Naoero is the world’s third smallest country by population, after Tuvalu and Vatican City. (Vanguard News) The tiny coral limestone atoll was colonised by Germany and later administered by Australia before becoming an independent republic in 1968.
It has faced tumultuous circumstances, with phosphate mining creating huge wealth on the island in the 1970s before the industry collapsed, bringing Naoero to the brink of economic ruin in the 1990s. (ABC News) At its peak, Naoero was one of the wealthiest countries per capita in the world, its phosphate riches funding a lifestyle of extraordinary luxury for its small population.
When the phosphate ran out, the country was left with a scarred, crater-pocked landscape and depleted national finances.
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In recent decades, Naoero earned international controversy for hosting offshore immigration detention centres for Australia, a policy that drew sharp criticism from human rights groups worldwide. The country has also struggled with high rates of obesity and diabetes linked to dietary changes introduced during the colonial era and the phosphate boom years.
Beyond its name, Naoero faces an existential threat that makes its story one of the most urgent in the world today. The country is one of the world’s most at risk from rising seas due to climate change, prompting the government to seek overseas investment through a paid citizenship programme intended to fund the movement of people and infrastructure away from the encroaching ocean.
Naoero sits just two metres above sea level at its highest point. Scientists project that without dramatic reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions, the island could be rendered largely uninhabitable within decades as sea levels rise and storm surges become more frequent and destructive.
The country has been one of the loudest voices at UN climate summits demanding urgent action from the world’s major emitter nations that contribute the vast majority of the emissions that are slowly consuming Pacific island states.
The paid citizenship programme Naoero has introduced is a sobering innovation essentially preparing for the day when its people may need to live elsewhere while retaining their nationality and cultural identity across the ocean. It is a contingency plan that no country should ever need, and that Naoero only needs because the world’s largest polluters have failed to act with sufficient urgency.
For Nigeria, Naoero’s story resonates on two levels. The reclaiming of a pre-colonial name is a conversation Nigeria has itself navigated, from the renaming of cities like Lagos and Calabar to ongoing debates about the colonial origins of the name “Nigeria” itself. And the existential climate threat facing Naoero is a reminder that rising seas, driven by the same global emissions that are disrupting Nigeria’s rainfall patterns, flooding its coastal cities and shrinking Lake Chad, are not a problem confined to small island nations.
They are a shared emergency, and Naoero’s quiet act of reclaiming its name is also a declaration that its people intend to survive it.
