Which country was formerly named Ceylon?

Myanmar. In 1989, the military gov­ern­ment of­fi­cial­ly changed the English trans­la­tions of many names dating back to Burma's colonial period or earlier, in­clud­ing that of the country itself: "Burma" became "Myan­mar". Both these names are derived from the name of the majority Burmese Bamar ethnic group. Myanmar is con­sid­ered to be the literary form of the name of the group, while Burma is derived from "Bamar", the col­lo­qui­al form of the group's name.

Iran. His­tor­i­cal­ly, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek his­to­ri­ans who called Iran Persis. In 1935, Reza Shah re­quest­ed the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to refer to the country by its native name, Iran.

Thai­land. The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its cit­i­zen­s. Por­tuguese ex­plor­ers named it Siam, possibly from the Chinese name “Xiam”. The name “Siam” was used of­fi­cial­ly by Thai gov­ern­ment until 1939, when it was changed to Thai­land. In 1945 the name reverted to Siam, and in 1949 reverted once again to Thai­land.

Suriname is a former Dutch Colony known as Dutch Guiana. The country changed its name in 1975, after gaining in­de­pen­dence. The name “Suri­name” comes from the main river of the country, and was used for the colony long before the official adop­tion.