Countries in Oceania: all 14 countries with native names and ISO codes

Pacific names for the countries of Oceania

• AotearoaNew Zealand Latin
• SāmoaSamoa Latin
• Papua NiuginiPapua New Guinea Latin
• M̧ajeļMarshall Islands Latin

Eleven of the 14 native names come from a language of the region. Fiji is Viti in Fijian, Palau is Belau in Palauan, Nauru is Naoero in Nauruan and Papua New Guinea is Papua Niugini in Tok Pisin. New Zealand's row puts the Māori name Aotearoa first and the English name after it.

The spellings carry sounds English has no letter for. Marshallese writes M̧ajeļ with a cedilla under m and l, Samoan marks the long vowel of Sāmoa with a macron, and Tongan writes the glottal stop as ʻ in its official name, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga.

Seven rows look the same in both columns because the country uses one word at home and abroad: Australia, Kiribati, Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Australia, Micronesia and Solomon Islands give the English name as their own.

The four regions of Oceania

The countries of Oceania are usually grouped into four regions. Australasia covers Australia and New Zealand. Melanesia takes in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Micronesia includes the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau, and Polynesia includes Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu. The United Nations M49 standard divides Oceania the same way, naming the first group Australia and New Zealand.