The Wednesday Quiz III:3 -- Country Name Changes

The Wednesday Quiz -- Season III -- Quiz 3

Country Name Changes

The Wednesday Quiz is a "closed-book" test of knowledge and intuition; please do not look up answers, ask others for help, or answer as a team.

Questions about the rules and the ~Fabulous Prizes~ are answered here.

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In the course of human events, it occasionally happens that control of a country or territory will transfer from one political entity to another. When this happens, sometimes the new rulers will change the name of the country, often to reflect deeply-felt national aspirations or to dispense of offensive names imposed by outside imperialist rulers. I find that most people act as if this were an obnoxious practical joke played on them personally by ornery people far-away whose sole purpose is to undermine the geography lessons they endured in their school days and make them look foolish.

Let's see how foolish they've made ~you~ look! Give the new names -- or, in a few cases, the old names -- of the following countries! 8 1/3 points apiece, again.

1. It was called Siam until 1949.
2. It was called South-West Africa until 1968, officially, and practically until well into the 1980s
3. It was called Ceylon until 1972.
4. It was called British Honduras until 1973.
5. It was called Dahomey until 1975.
6. It was called French Somaliland and then Afars and Issas before taking its current name in 1977.
7. It was known as the Gilbert Islands before independence in 1979; the new name starts with a "K."
8. It was called the New Hebrides in 1980, when it gained independence and a new name starting with a "V."
9. It was part of Rhodesia, and then it was Southern Rhodesia until 1980.
10. In 1984, it became Burkina Faso.
11. It was called Moldavia until 1991.
12. In 1997, it became the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Submit your answers in the comments!