Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in other languages: Kingstown, flag

A saint, a Spanish city and a rainbow spirit

The country has one name in English and no shorter official form: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which is both the short and the full name. Christopher Columbus is said to have named the main island after Saint Vincent of Saragossa, San Vicente de Zaragoza, whose feast falls on 22 January. The Kalinago, who lived on the island before Europeans came, called it Youloumain, after the rainbow spirit Youlouca.

The Grenadines take their name from the Spanish city of Granada, in a diminutive that keeps them apart from Grenada, the larger island to the south. That double origin is visible in the exonyms. Spanish San Vicente y las Granadinas and Portuguese São Vicente e Granadinas translate both halves, German Sankt Vincent und die Grenadinen translates the saint, and French Saint-Vincent-et-les Grenadines leaves the saint in its own form.

Further east the name is transcribed: Сент-Винсент и Гренадины (Sent-Vinsent i Grenadiny) in Russian, Άγιος Βικέντιος και Γρεναδίνες (Ágios Vikéntios kai Grenadínes) in Greek, which again translates the saint, and 聖文森特和格林納丁斯 (Shèng Wénsēntè hé Gélínnàdīngsī) in Chinese.

Six parishes, and the Grenadines that are not included

ISO 3166-2 added the six parishes in April 2007 and has not changed them. The capital Kingstown is the seat of Saint George, Georgetown that of Charlotte. The other seats are Layou for Saint Andrew, Chateaubelair for Saint David and Barrouallie for Saint Patrick, so no parish is named after its own main town.

Not all of the Grenadines belong to the country. The largest of its islands are Bequia, Mustique, Canouan and Union Island, which together with the smaller inhabited ones make up Grenadines Parish; Carriacou and Petite Martinique, further south, are part of Grenada.