My Countryhuman headcanons and AUs

Names in CH

After overthinking my countryhuman lore, like I always do, I came to the conclusion that naming conventions in the flag-head community tend to be different than our own. It is to be expected from a species that, despite being close to humans and their societies and cultures, have their own take on traditions and conventions. So I wanted to explore it some more and get into all the details I can.

And, if you think, like me, that the way humans name each other is already pretty weird and nonsensical at times, you'll see that switching species doesn't necessarily make it less strange. Just in a different way.

Overall differences between the human and CH naming conventions

Living in interconnected societal structures, both species have had adopted the concept of everyone having to have a name of their own to be recognized and to have an individual identity, for social purposes. But they approached this concept in different ways.

Differing from one culture to another, humans have, overall, came up with a naming convention composed of two elements : the first name, meant to represent your individuality with a unique name (except if you're given a relative's name in "jr", which breaks the entire purpose), and a family name, meant to link you back to your bloodline and ancestry, putting an unneeded emphasis on a so-called need for lineage (that you're going to "kill a monument" or whatever if you don't breed, we've all heard about that pressure and injunction).

For CH, it's more simple (or so it seems) : they have one name, either inspired by ancestry or a familial past, or by places of birth and living, or even completely made up because it's cool. So if any link or whatnot need to be indicated in a country's name, it has to be included in the one and only name they have, for better or for worst (we'll see that later).

That's how it is at the top of the iceberg but when diving down, you realize it's not that easy. Yes, they do have one name that everyone recognizes them for, the names usually written on maps and such, but as we will see later, they have an actual "full name" that is longer and more descriptive, especially when it comes to their status. They also use multiple names, over time or at the same time, depending on which flag-head we're talking about.

Another point that is interesting to bring up is the fact that CH names are not gendered, which does help not separating their species in two different casts with each having sexist expectations and such, unlike humans. This is why trans CH don't have deadnames, they didn't need to change their names to fit their identities. Even if name changes are a thing, obviously.

Full names

As mentioned above, CH, and especially countries, have "full names". You know, these sometimes very long fancy names that people who aren't obsessed with countries and geography usually don't know because they are mostly irrelevant ? Because you can't just be named Russia, your full name has to be the Russian Federation, because it sounds cooler and grander.

In reality, even between countries themselves, these names are rarely used, they are more of a formality, something that can mainly be found on official documents or whatnot. Though it was also used by some to proudly show their status and political regimes and so used to be utilized a lot by kingdoms and empires.

These full names have also been the occasion for some countries to make themselves appear better than they really are, like China calling himself a "people's republic" or North Korea grooming people into thinking he is democratic but I won't comment on that for any longer.

I don't know if it's necessary to note but obviously, USA and USSR's full names are when not in acronym form.

What I find interesting about full names is how it only seem to be full-on sovereign countries that have them. I don't think I've heard about lesser territories like regions, provinces or states or even cities having such names (except if you want to count Republika Srpska, but I don't know how to fit them in).