Conversion

It was a mostly uneventful  drive today from Ksamil, in Southern Albania, to the lovely town of Ulcinj in Montenegro, except for about a two hour wait at the border, which we suspect  was caused by  the border guards taking a three  hour  lunch.
The event I am blogging about  tonight was a small one, just the briefest of passing conversations, but it was significant in that it changed my opinion about an important topic: the correct name of the country I live in and love.
When the news first broke that the new official  name in English was to be  Czechia and not The Czech Republic I resisted it mightily.  I mean, who are they (really – who are they?  Who decides these things?  I don’t know.  Does anybody know?) and what gives them the right to go  messing with other people’s country’s names?
On the other hand, it was an astronomers’ conference in Prague that decided for the whole galaxy that Pluto wasn’t to be counted as a planet any more, so what goes around comes around, I guess.
I have argued against the new name on many an internet thread, and given many reasons.  Then, while getting gas this morning, the attendant who was pumping our gas (Yes, in that respect Albania is a bit like the U.S. of the 1960s.  It was a bit quaint and anachronistic, but  also nice) asked where we  were from and I said “The Czech Republic.”
“Ah,” he replied.  “Czechia.”  Well, I certainly wasn’t going to argue with the man while he was pumping our gas, and he was being polite, and he was not  wrong.  Also, Czechia is easier and you don’t get into arguments and have to keep reminding people to use the article and sounding like a damned pedant, and at least he’s not saying Czechoslovakia, so it’s all to the good.

Also, in the etymology of language, popular usage should be the only rule, and this obviously counts as popular usage.

So, I stand converted.  Czechia it is.