How to deal with official country names which aren't understood by users?

1. Why don't we call countries by their own name?
2. What do people call their own countries?
3. Why are countries called what they are called?

Why don't we call countries by their own name?

You probably have a word that means people living there, or a certain place, or people speaking a certain language. In that case the word for the country is not a name, but it is a word in your own language. Over time, a certain name has established an official status in your language. It became a name.

What do people call their own countries?

A country's own name for itself is called an endonym, and at endonymmap.com you can find a map of the world's endonyms.

Why are countries called what they are called?

There's a fascinating trend in country names – countries are almost always named after one of four things: a directional description of the country, a feature of the land, a tribe name or an important person, usually male.