How many countries have a name beginning with ‘The’?
Wikipedia tells us:
According to the CIA World Factbook, the United States Department of State, the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use, The Gambia is one of only two countries whose self-standing short name for official use should begin with the word “The”, the other being The Bahamas.
Habitually, the definite article is sometimes still used when addressing many other countries, including
Netherlands, Philippines, Congo, Sudan, Yemen, Comoros, Central African Republic, Seychelles, Maldives, Solomon Islands, Dominican Republic, Czech Republic, Marshall Islands, United Kingdom, United States of America and Lebanon,
with varying degrees of accuracy.