Below is a list of country names that have changed. The list was created out of desperation during the process of sorting out superseded editions of CIA maps and State Department Background Notes. Any corrections or additions to this list will be most welcome.

Three events in the twentieth century have caused major name changes for nations. First was the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a result of WWI. A number of European nations formed or changed shape at this time. Second was the movement of various colonies to independent republics, mostly during the 1960s and mainly in Africa and Asia. Some former colonies separated or joined to form new nations; more changed their names. Congo is especially confusing since it can refer to either the Republic of the Congo or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are two entirely different and distinct countries. Third was the breakup of the Soviet Union and other eastern bloc nations into independent republics during the 1990s. These three periods account for the most, but not all, name changes.

For the purpose of this list I have arbitrarily used WWI as a cut-off, tracing name changes since but not before then. I have also listed all older names individually, rather than showing the progression through a variety of names, since the purpose of this list is to let someone identify what an area is currently called.

Old Names To Current Names

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (and occasionally the Russian empire that preceded it) swallowed up and later spit out a number of independent states. The breakup of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries formed a number of new republics, some of which have since combined. While not name changes as such, the following list still lets one track these changes.

The U.S.S.R. (aka the Soviet Union, and, informally, Russia) separated into sixteen countries:
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Estonia
Georgia
Kazakstan
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Lithuania
Moldova
Russia
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
Uzbekistan

Chechnya declared its independence from Russia, but Russia has not recognized this and still claims the area as its own.

Eastern Block countries
Czechoslovakia separated into two countries:
Czech Republic, the (which includes Bohemia, Moravia and part of Silesia)
Slovakia

East and West Germany reunited to form Germany.

Yugoslavia separated into six countries:
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia
Macedonia
Montenegro
Serbia (includes Kosovo)
Slovenia

Serbia and Montenegro reunited to again become Yugoslavia.

Some other miscellaneous changes that did not reflect well in the above list are:

The British West Indies became simply the West Indies which are now called the Antilles. This further subdivides into the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles (which includes Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico), the Lesser Antilles (which includes the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados), and into the islands off the north coast of Venezuela. Part of the British territories tried to form the West Indies Federation, but this fell apart before it could achieve independence; some of the islands then became independent in their own right. Meanwhile others first formed the West Indies Associated States then became independent.

Singapore joined Malaysia for a very short time and then withdrew.