Prague, Apr 16 (IANS): Leaders of the Czech Republic are proposing a change to the country's name to something shorter and with less syllables: Czechia.

A website that advocates for the change cites improper abbreviations of the Czech Republic as one reason to give the country a different name. It also said the name was not a newly coined term but comes from Latin, ajc.com reported.

"Other historic evidence of the use Czechia in English is from 1856 and 1866 in the Australian press," the site said.

"US newspapers commonly used Czechia between 1918 and 1960 to refer to the western part of Czechoslovakia (as opposed to Slovakia, its eastern part) - the contemporary Czech Republic."

The Guardian reported that foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek has cited similar reasons for making the change: "Distortions and misspellings".

Another reason is that some still call the country by the name that no longer exists: Czechoslovakia.

Czechoslovakia ceased to exist in 1993, when the country split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Officials issued a joint statement on Thursday saying they would ask the UN to update the country's name.

"We recommend using the single-word name in foreign languages in situations when it's not necessary to use the country's formal name: Sports events, marketing purposes etc."