Nauru Renamed Naoero, Reclaims Heritage at UN

President David Adeang announced at the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, that the country long known as Nauru is now called Naoero. He presented the step as restoring the name and pronunciation the island’s people used among themselves, saying the internationally familiar form reflected how outsiders had rendered it. The eight-square-mile South Pacific nation of about 12,000 people, independent since 1968 after colonial rule by the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Germany, will change its international code from NRU to NRO and refer to its people as dei-Naoero. Adeang distinguished the pronunciation Now-ero from Now-roo and said the name carries ancestral memory, language and identity; he closed with the words Say our name. The government had formally announced the renaming in August after signaling intent in February. Rated outlets place the move alongside earlier national renamings including Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Turkiye. No factual disputes appear among the sources in the record.