Nepal in other languages: exonyms, Kathmandu, flag and 7 provinces
Nepal is नेपाल (Nepāl) in Nepali, officially सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल, the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, with the ISO codes NP, NPL and 524. Below are the name in 176 languages, the capital Kathmandu in 80, the seven provinces and the former anthem.
Official languagesNepali (नेपाली, nepālī)
Checked
- alpha-2
- NP
- alpha-3
- NPL
- numeric
- 524
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपालSaṅgʰīya Loktāntrik Gaṇtantra Nepāl
- English
- NepalFederal Democratic Republic of Nepal
- Capital
- काठमाडौंKāṭʰmāḍauṃ · Kathmandu
ISO 3166-1, checked 28 October 2026. Flag after the Wikimedia Commons drawing.
Nepal in other languages: list of exonyms
| Languages | ISO 639-3 | Name | Romanised |
|---|---|---|---|
| English, Afrikaans, Aragonese, Asturian, Breton, Catalan, Cornish, Kashubian, Welsh, Danish, Lower Sorbian, Estonian, Basque, Faroese, Finnish, Kven, West Frisian, Friulian, Galician, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Croatian, Upper Sorbian, Interlingua, Indonesian, Icelandic, Italian, Javanese, Kurmanji Kurdish, Limburgish, Ladin, Maltese, Dutch, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Polish, Portuguese, Romansh, Romanian, Aromanian, Slovenian, Northern Sami, Spanish, Sardinian, Saterland Frisian, Swedish, Silesian, Tagalog, Tok Pisin, Turkish, Võro, Walloon, Zazaki, German, Luxembourgish, Low German | eng / afr / arg / ast / bre / cat / cor / csb / cym / dan / dsb / est / eus / fao / fin / fkv / fry / fur / glg / hat / hau / hrv / hsb / ina / ind / isl / ita / jav / kur / lim / lld / mlt / nld / nor / nov / oci / pol / por / roh / ron / rup / slv / sme / spa / srd / stq / swe / szl / tgl / tpi / tur / vor / wln / zza / deu / ltz / nds | Nepal | same as written |
| Azerbaijani, Crimean Tatar, Gagauz, Karakalpak, Moldovan, Slovio, Turkmen | aze / crh / gag / kaa / mol / slo / tuk | Nepal / Непал | Nepal |
| Bambara, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Sicilian, Albanian, Swahili | bam / kin / run / scn / sqi / swa | Nepali | same as written |
| Czech, Hungarian, Slovak, Tetum | ces / hun / slk / tet | Nepál | same as written |
| French, Jersey Norman French | fra / jnf | Népal | same as written |
| Manx, Wolof | glv / wol | Nepaal | same as written |
| Bosnian | bos | Nepal / Непал / نەپال | Nepal |
| Esperanto | epo | Nepalo | same as written |
| Franco-Provençal | frp | Nèpal | same as written |
| Scottish Gaelic | gla | Neapàl, Neapal | same as written |
| Irish | gle | Neipeal | same as written |
| Igbo | ibo | Nepọl | same as written |
| Latin | lat | Nepalia | same as written |
| Latvian | lav | Nepāla | same as written |
| Lingala | lin | Nepáli | same as written |
| Lithuanian | lit | Nepalas | same as written |
| Latgalian, Samogitian | ltg / smg | Nepals | same as written |
| Malagasy | mlg | Nepaly | same as written |
| Malay | msa | Nepal / نيڤال | Nepal |
| Nahuatl | nah | Nepallān | same as written |
| Norman French | nrm | Népâo | same as written |
| Quechua | que | Nipal | same as written |
| Kalderash Romani | rmy | Nepal / नेपाल | Nepal |
| Samoan | smo | Nepoli | same as written |
| Somali | som | Nebaal | same as written |
| Tongan | ton | Nepolo | same as written |
| Uzbek | uzb | Nepal / Непал / نېپەل | Nepal |
| Vietnamese | vie | Nê-pan | same as written |
| Volapük | vol | Nepalän | same as written |
| Gothic | got | 𐌽𐌴𐍀𐌰𐌻 | Nepal |
| Abkhaz, Abaza, Altai, Avar, Bulgarian, Chuvash, Kabardian, Khakas, Komi, Karachay-Balkar, Kumyk, Lezgi, Meadow Mari, Macedonian, Ossetian, Rusyn, Russian, Yakut, Tuvan, Udmurt, Ukrainian, Kalmyk | abk / abq / alt / ava / bul / chv / kbd / kjh / kom / krc / kum / lez / mhr / mkd / oss / rue / rus / sah / tyv / udm / ukr / xal | Непал | Nepal |
| Bashkir, Chechen, Serbian | bak / che / srp | Непал / Nepal | Nepal |
| Belarusian | bel | Непал / Niepał, Нэпал / Nepał | Niepał, Nepał |
| Kazakh, Kyrgyz | kaz / kir | Непал / نەپال / Nepal | Nepal |
| Kurdish (Caucasus) | kmr | Непал / Nêpal | Nêpal |
| Mongolian | mon | Балба | Balba |
| Tatar | tat | Непал / Nepal / نېپال | Nepal |
| Tajik | tgk | Непал / نیپل / Nepal | Nepal |
| Arabic | ara | نيبال, النيبال | Nībāl, an-Nībāl |
| South Azerbaijani | azb | نئپال / Nepal | Nepal |
| Sorani Kurdish | ckb | نێپاڵ / Nêpaḻ, نێپال / Nêpal | Nêpaḻ, Nêpal |
| Persian | fas | نپال / Nepâl | Nepâl |
| Western Punjabi, Dari, Urdu | pnb / prs / urd | نیپال | Nēpāl |
| Pashto | pus | نېپال | Nepāl |
| Sindhi | snd | نیپال | Nēpāla |
| Uyghur | uig | نېپال / Népal / Непал | Népal |
| Dhivehi | div | ނޭޕާލް | Nēpāl |
| Hebrew | heb | נפל, נפאל | Nepal, Nepāl |
| Ladino | lad | ניפאל / Nepal | Nepal |
| Yiddish | yid | נעפּאַל | Nepal |
| Amharic | amh | ኔፓል | Nepal |
| Greek | ell | Νεπάλ | Nepál |
| Armenian | hye | Նեպալ | Nepal |
| Georgian, Mingrelian | kat / xmf | ნეპალი | Nepali |
| Laz | lzz | ნეპალი / Nep’ali | Nep’ali |
| Nepali, Sherpa | nep / xsr | नेपाल | Nepāl |
| Hindi | hin | नेपाल, नैपाल | Nepāl, Næpāl |
| Bengali | ben | নেপাল | Nepāl |
| Gujarati | guj | નેપાળ | Nepāḷ |
| Odia | ori | ନେପାଲ, ନେପାଳ | Nepāl, Nepāḷ |
| Punjabi | pan | ਨੇਪਾਲ | Nepāl |
| Sinhala | sin | නේපාලය | Nēpālaya |
| Kannada | kan | ನೇಪಾಳ, ನೆಪಾಳ | Nēpāḷa, Nepāḷa |
| Malayalam | mal | നേപ്പാൾ, നേപാളം | Nēppāḷ, Nēpāḷaṃ |
| Tamil | tam | நேபாளம், நேப்பாளம் | Nēpāḷam, Nēppāḷam |
| Telugu | tel | నేపాల్ | Nēpāl |
| Chinese | zho | 尼泊爾/尼泊尔, 尼波羅/尼波罗 | Níbó'ěr, Níbōluó |
| Japanese | jpn | ネパール, ニハラ | Nepāru, Nihara |
| Korean | kor | 네팔, 니파라 | Nepal, Nipara |
| Tibetan | bod | བལ་ཡུལ།, བལ་པོ།, ནེ་པ་ལ། | Bal.yul, Bal.po, Ne.pa.la |
| Dzongkha | dzo | བལ་ཡུལ། | Bal.yul |
| Burmese | mya | နိပော | Nipɔ̀ |
| Thai | tha | เนปาล | Nēpān |
| Lao | lao | ເນປານ | Nēpān |
| Khmer | khm | នេប៉ាល់ | Nebal |
Tibetan and Dzongkha call the country བལ་ཡུལ། (Bal.yul), and Mongolian Балба; Japanese and Korean list an older borrowed form beside the modern one, ニハラ and 니파라.
Nepāl, Bal.yul, Níbōluó: three ways to name Nepal
नेपाल, Nepāl, travels into almost every language with little change, and the table shows how the vowels and the final l are adapted. Georgian adds its nominative ending, ნეპალი; Sinhala adds the suffix -aya, නේපාලය; Tamil and Malayalam write நேபாளம் and നേപ്പാൾ with a retroflex ḷ. Arabic has نيبال and, with the article, النيبال. Even Gothic is given a form, 𐌽𐌴𐍀𐌰𐌻.
Three traditions keep older names. Tibetan and Dzongkha call the country བལ་ཡུལ། (Bal.yul), and Mongolian says Балба. Japanese and Korean list ニハラ and 니파라 next to the modern forms, and Chinese has the older transcription 尼波羅 (Níbōluó) beside 尼泊爾.
Kathmandu has even more spellings. Nepali writes काठमाडौं or काठमाडौँ, Hindi काठमांडू, Bengali four forms, Arabic six. Russian and most Cyrillic languages, Turkish and the Turkic languages write Katmandu without the h, and Japanese カトマンズ ends in -zu. Sherpa and Tibetan keep a second name, Yambu.
Kathmandu in other languages
| Languages | ISO 639-3 | Name | Romanised |
|---|---|---|---|
| English, German, Low German, Irish | eng / deu / nds / gle | Kathmandu | same as written |
| Danish, Estonian, Galician, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Luxembourgish | dan / est / glg / hun / lav / lit / nor / pol / swe / tgl / tur / ltz | Katmandu | same as written |
| Azerbaijani, Moldovan, Slovio, Turkmen | aze / mol / slo / tuk | Katmandu / Катманду | Katmandu |
| Aragonese, Spanish, Tetum | arg / spa / tet | Katmandú | same as written |
| French, Haitian Creole | fra / hat | Katmandou | same as written |
| Scottish Gaelic, Portuguese | gla / por | Catmandu | same as written |
| Bosnian | bos | Katmandu / Катманду / قاتماندۆ | Katmandu |
| Catalan | cat | Kathmandú | same as written |
| Czech | ces | Káthmándú | same as written |
| Esperanto | epo | Katmanduo, Katmando | same as written |
| Kurmanji Kurdish | kur | Katmandû | same as written |
| Malay | msa | Kathmandu / كاتهماندو | Kathmandu |
| Occitan | oci | Katmandó | same as written |
| Slovak | slk | Káthmandu | same as written |
| Samogitian | smg | Katmandū | same as written |
| Uzbek | uzb | Katmandu / Катманду / كەتمەندۇ | Katmandu |
| Bulgarian, Mongolian, Russian, Ukrainian | bul / mon / rus / ukr | Катманду | Katmandu |
| Bashkir, Belarusian, Serbian | bak / bel / srp | Катманду / Katmandu | Katmandu |
| Kazakh | kaz | Катманду / كاتماندۋ / Katmandw | Katmandw |
| Kyrgyz | kir | Катманду / كاتماندۇ / Katmandu | Katmandu |
| Tatar | tat | Катманду / Katmandu / كاتماندۇ | Katmandu |
| Tajik | tgk | Катманду / کتمندو / Katmandu | Katmandu |
| Arabic | ara | كتمندو, كاتماندو, كاتمندو, كثمندو, كاثماندو, كاثمندو | Katmandū, Kātmāndū, Kātmandū, Kaṯmandū, Kāṯmāndū, Kāṯmandū |
| South Azerbaijani | azb | کاتماندو / Katmandu | Katmandu |
| Persian | fas | کاتماندو / Kâtmându | Kâtmându |
| Western Punjabi, Urdu | pnb / urd | کٹھمنڈو | Kaṫʰmanḋū |
| Pashto | pus | کاټمانډو | Kāṫmānḋū |
| Sindhi | snd | ڪٽمنڊو | Kaṫmanḍū |
| Uyghur | uig | كاتماندۇ / Katmandu / Катманду | Katmandu |
| Hebrew | heb | קטמנדו | Qaṭmandū |
| Yiddish | yid | קאַטמאַנדו | Katmandu |
| Amharic | amh | ካትማንዱ | Katmandu |
| Greek (Demotic) | ell | Κατμαντού | Katmantoý |
| Greek (Katharevousa) | ell | Κατμαντοῦ | Katmantoỹ |
| Armenian | hye | Կատմանդու | Katmandou |
| Georgian | kat | კატმანდუ | Katmandu |
| Hindi | hin | काठमांडू, काठमांडो | Kāṭʰmāṃḍū, Kāṭʰmāṃḍo |
| Nepali | nep | काठमाडौं, काठमाडौँ | Kāṭʰmāḍauṃ, Kāṭʰmāḍã̃u |
| Sherpa | xsr | यम्बु | Yambu |
| Bengali | ben | কাঠমান্ডু, কাঠমাণ্ডু, কাঠমন্ডু, কাঠমুন্ডু | Kāṭʰmānḍu, Kāṭʰmāṇḍu, Kāṭʰmônḍu, Kāṭʰmunḍu |
| Gujarati | guj | કાઠમંડુ | Kāṭʰmaṃḍu |
| Punjabi | pan | ਕਾਠਮੰਡੂ, ਖਟਮੰਡੂ | Kāṭʰmãḍū, Kʰaṭmãḍū |
| Sinhala | sin | කත්මන්ඩු | Katmanḍu |
| Kannada | kan | ಕಾಟ್ಮಂಡು, ಕಟ್ಮಂಡು | Kāṭmaṃḍu, Kaṭmaṃḍu |
| Malayalam | mal | കട്ട്മണ്ടു, കാഠ്മണ്ഡു | Kaṭṭmaṇṭu, Kāṭʰmaṇḍu |
| Tamil | tam | காத்மாண்டு, காட்மாண்டு, கத்மந்து | Kātmāṇṭu, Kāṭmāṇṭu, Katmantu |
| Telugu | tel | కాఠ్మండూ, ఖాట్మాండు | Kāṭʰmaṃḍū, Kʰāṭmāṃḍu |
| Chinese | zho | 加德滿都/加德满都 | Jiādémǎndū |
| Japanese | jpn | カトマンズ | Katomanzu |
| Korean | kor | 카트만두 | Kateumandu |
| Tibetan | bod | ཀཋ་མན་གྲུ།, ཡམ་བུ། | Kaṭʰ.man.gru, Yam.bu |
| Thai | tha | กาฐมาณฑุ, กาฏมัณฑุ, กาฏมาณฑุ, กัตมันฑุ | Kātmāntʰu, Kātmântʰu, Kātmāntʰu, Kâtmântʰu |
| Khmer | khm | កាត់ម៉ាន់ឌូ, ខាត់មែនឌូ | Katmandū, Kʰatmændū |
Sherpa and Tibetan also give the old name Yambu, यम्बु and ཡམ་བུ།.
The 7 provinces of Nepal with ISO 3166-2 codes
Since the constitution of 2015 Nepal is divided into seven provinces (प्रदेश, pradesh). They first carried numbers; all seven now have names. The second column gives the name in the romanisation ISO 3166-2 uses.
| ISO 3166-2 | Nepali | ISO romanisation | English | Administrative centre | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provinces प्रदेश7 | |||||
| NP-P1 | कोशी प्रदेश | Koshī | Koshi | विराटनगरBiratnagar | 2023 Added 2018 as Province 1; named Koshī in ISO 2023 |
| NP-P2 | मधेश प्रदेश | Madhesh | Madhesh | जनकपुरJanakpur | 2022 Added 2018 as Province 2; named Madhesh in ISO 2022 |
| NP-P3 | बागमती प्रदेश | Bāgmatī | Bagmati | हेटौंडाHetauda | 2020 Added 2018 as Province 3; named Bāgmatī in ISO 2020 |
| NP-P4 | गण्डकी प्रदेश | Gaṇḍakī | Gandaki | पोखराPokhara | 2018 Added to ISO 3166-2 as Province 4 |
| NP-P5 | लुम्बिनी प्रदेश | Lumbinī | Lumbini | देउखुरीDeukhuri | 2018 Added to ISO 3166-2 as Province 5 |
| NP-P6 | कर्णाली प्रदेश | Karṇālī | Karnali | वीरेन्द्रनगरBirendranagar | 2018 Added to ISO 3166-2 as Province 6 |
| NP-P7 | सुदूरपश्चिम प्रदेश | Sudūrpashchim | Sudurpashchim | गोदावरीGodawari | 2020 Added 2018 as Province 7; named in ISO 2020 |
Codes, romanised names and changes: ISO 3166-2:NP on the ISO Online Browsing Platform, change history as tabulated in Wikipedia's ISO 3166-2:NP, checked 28 October 2026. Devanagari names: Wikidata labels of the province items. Capitals: Wikipedia, Provinces of Nepal, in Devanagari after the Wikidata labels, same date.
From development regions to seven provinces
The 2015 constitution replaced the five development regions and the 14 zones under them with seven provinces, formed by grouping the existing districts under its Schedule 4; Nawalparasi and Rukum were split between two provinces (Wikipedia, Provinces of Nepal). ISO 3166-2 added the provinces in 2018 as Province 1 to Province 7.
Names came step by step. ISO already recorded Gandaki and Karnali as local names in 2018; Bāgmatī and Sudūrpashchim followed in the 2020 update, Madhesh in 2022 and Koshī in 2023. The 2022 update also deleted the old regions and zones. Lumbini is governed from Deukhuri, Sudurpashchim from Godawari.
The five development regions and their centres
Before the provinces Nepal had five development regions (विकास क्षेत्रहरू, vikās kṣetraharū). ISO 3166-2 deleted them, together with the 14 zones, in 2022.
- पश्चिमाञ्चल विकास क्षेत्र (Pašcimāñcal vikās kṣetra), centre पोखरा (Pokʰarā)
- पुर्वाञ्चल विकास क्षेत्र (Purvāñcal vikās kṣetra), centre धनकुटा (Dʰankuṭā)
- मध्यमाञ्चल विकास क्षेत्र (Madʰyamāñcal vikās kṣetra), centre हेटौंडा (Heṭauṃḍā)
- मध्य-पश्चिमाञ्चल विकास क्षेत्र (Madʰya-Pašcimāñcal vikās kṣetra), centre बीरेन्द्रनगर (Bīrendranagar)
- सुदुर-पश्चिमाञ्चल विकास क्षेत्र (Sudur-Pašcimāñcal vikās kṣetra), centre दीपायल (Dīpāyal)
The ten largest towns
- काठमाडौं (Kāṭʰmāḍauṃ)
- पोखरा (Pokʰarā)
- पाटन (Pāṭan)
- बिराटनगर (Birāṭnagar)
- बीरगञ्ज (Bīrgañdz)
- धरान (Dʰarān)
- भरतपुर (Bʰaratpur)
- जनकपुर (Dzanakpur)
- धनगढी (Dʰangaḍʰī)
- बुटवल (Buṭval)
Former national anthem: Shriman Gambhir (श्रीमान् गम्भीर)
Chakrapani Chalise wrote the words in 1924; the song was the national anthem from 1962 until 2006 and honoured the king (Wikipedia, Shriman Gambhir).
Questions about the names and provinces of Nepal
How do you write Nepal in Nepali?
नेपाल, transliterated Nepāl. The capital is काठमाडौं, Kāṭʰmāḍauṃ.
How many provinces does Nepal have?
Seven: Koshi, Madhesh, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpashchim, coded NP-P1 to NP-P7.
What are the ISO codes of Nepal?
NP (alpha-2), NPL (alpha-3) and 524 (numeric) in ISO 3166-1.