National title

The National title allows you to describe the type of government organization of your nation, not to be confused with the type of government polices of your nation.

New nations may select one of thirty-seven pretitles from a dropdown list. Once a nation surpasses 500 million in population, they may add a custom title of their own choosing. This custom pretitle must be between three and twenty-eight alphanumeric characters long, with hyphens being notably permitted. Nations belonging to mods may have longer titles than this length.

Survey

Sober Thought surveyed 1486 nations (~1.5% of all active nations) on April 24, 2006. The sample consisted of every 10th page of nations for The Pacific, every 10th page for Gatesville, every 5th page for Europe, all pages for Texas, all pages for Futaba Aoi, all pages for Australia and all pages for the United States. The quantitative analysis appears in the table to the right, while qualitative analysis of the customised pretitles appears below.

Percentages are calculated from the raw data then rounded up or down as required. A nation might logically fall into two or more classes, but the dropdown options do not allow for it. In the customized class, nations are free to combine two or more classes in their pretitle. They are counted in every applicable category, so the percentages within this class exceed 22.6% for the class as whole not just from rounding.

Customised monarchies

This sub-class consisted of any explicit (e.g., “Kingdom,” “Empire,” “Dukedom”) or implicit (e.g., “Crown Colony,” “Shogunate,” “Space Age Knights”) monarchies, including theocratic monarchies like “Holy See” and “Papal Realm.”

Most were happy to only slightly modify the dropdown menu option, adding a leading adjective like “Dread Empire of Lorllian” or “Gunslingin' Kingdom of Cowboys.” Other nations combined adjectives from other categories like “United Royal Kingdoms of St Thomas and St James” or “Federal Monarchy of Hugoland.”

Particularly artful combinations included the “Holy Orthodox Czarist Empire of Cestiphon,” “Spaghetti worshiping kingdom of New Falls Church” and “Tire-Burning Torque Empire of HotRodia.” Particularly Jennifer Government-esque combinations included “Corporate Controlled Empire of Mercenaries World” and “Caldari Crown Colony of TerranCorp.”

Customised republics

For ease of categorisation, all these republics had to be explicit since many terms (e.g., Commonwealth, Reich) could apply to monarchies as well.

The most common group of adjectives applied to these republics were an indication of political orientation, UN Category or both, e.g., “Democratic People's Republic of New Moravia,” “Fasciste Republique of Secadores,” “Libertarian Republic of Anglovictoria.” They seemed approximately equally divided into rightwing and leftwing terms.

The next most common group of adjectives were an indication of regional, national (whether real world or game) or ethnic (ditto), e.g., “Aoian Free Republic of Halandra,” “Texas Republic of Sam Houston,” “Czechenstachian Repubilic of Czechenstachia” and “Anglo-Saxon Republic of Evictorius.”

Among the more imaginative pretitles were the “Almost Comatose Republic of Retirement Villas,” “Gun Toting Ranger Republic of Armed Texas,” “Orwellian Republic of Imperial Ravensburg” (complete with modified 1984 Ingsoc flag), “Mosquito infested Republic of Galveston Bay” and “Rockin to Bob Seger Republic of El Pat.”

Customised federations

As described in the footnote to the table on the right, some customised pretitles may apply to more than one category. This is especially true of federations, including concurrent monarchies like “United Kingdom of Emaria” and concurrent republics like “Republic Confederacy of Luckmonia.”

Like republics, many federations were described with terms relating to the political spectrum, but unlike republics these were exclusively leftwing terms like “United Stalinist States of Cidonia,” “Socialist Federation of Aerus Caries” and “People's Federation of Smithania.” This is not to say that rightwing nations are not found here, but rather it is reflected in their national name rather than national pretitle, e.g., “Confederacies of No Stinking Taxes.”

Several nations used political divisions not available in the dropdown menu, e.g., “Confederation of New Free Columbia,” “Free Cantons of Crotobaltislavonia” and “United Provinces of Nova Hollandia.” Humourous entries in this subclass included “Altered States of Porterian Dynasty” and “Fuel-Injected Federation of Texan Hotrodders.”

Diplomatic and United Nations

These are listed below because there are so few of them:

• Abused Diplomatic Immunity of New Zealand Embassy
• Ambassador of New Neverend
• Anti-UN Dictatorship of Jacobzcoool
• Aoian Delegacy of Nosedondekistan
• Australian Delegate of Ashmore
• Frisbeeterian UN Spokesmodel of Gnomewatchers
• Wysterian Ambadassor of Cugrand

Miscellaneous

By definition, these defy precise categorisation. However, one may make some general and specific comments which provide some insight.

Comedy – whether absurdist or combined with other elements – is the most popular theme here, as one would expect with a wacky game like NationStates. This category is exemplified by “4 Calling Birds of 3 French Hens,” “National crossward club of Angrered Farmers,” “BS Detector of October Surprise,” “Wootin Hootin Fig Newton of Rootin Tootin Putin” and “Creamcheese Conglomerate of Dedicated Flagmakers.” Many other nations which fall into other categories also use humour.

Party affiliation or polical philosophy seem to be next most important and crosses the entire political spectrum left to right: “Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune of Xiuhtecuhtle,” “Communist tATu-Sovereignity of Vaterland Reich,” “Socialist Democracy of Beyer Garratt,” “Parliamentary Democracy of Britaniana,” “Neo Con Outpost of Anne Coulter,” “Conservative Republic of God aka Danielle” and “Libertarian Paradise of Sexanddope.” Likewise, the parapolitical topic of religion frequently applies: “Atheistic Laboratories of WetNeck,” “Holy Greatness of French Connection,” “Holy Hand Grenadiers of Avron,” ”Scientologists for Cult of Lord Xenu” and “Second Coming of Chazriel II.”

Food and drink play a prominent role in this category: “Drunken Dags of Didjawannanotherbeer,” “Captain Morgan [a brand of rum] swillers of Nothingg,” “Cookiedom of Lindary,” “Fast Food Nation of Burger-King” and “GFP Drinking Land of Igea.” Closely related are apolitical social activities exemplified by “Great Party of Markusevec” and “Chick Magnet of MrBling.”

Mental states are frequently alluded to, most often for ill like “Confused Reality of Ambassador,” “Delusional Deluge of Firefighting Fish,” “Insanity of Crazy girl,” “Silent Scream of Marcel Marceau” and “Insanely Hyperactive Ghetto of ViXiePiXieNeSs.” Sometimes, however, they refer to good states of mind or qualities like “Happy CatHouse of Crazed Catgirls,” “Harmonized Technate of Filamai” and “Peaceful Island of Kahzam.” One example, “Damaged but Cheerful State of Blokeonia,” managed to straddle the two.

Many nations trumpet their omnipotence and superiority, as in “All powerful nation of Thelastempire,” “Champion of Pacific Peoples of Unlimited,” “Exhalted Suzerainty of Plutocycloptika,” “Most Powerful Blackness of Kool Moe Dee,” “Unlimited Power Nation of Asuka Langley Soryu” and “Infinitely Holy Glass Case of Preserved Lenin.”

A related but different category iscomprised of nations which trumpet their evilness: “Disgustingly Perverted Folks of Evil,” “Infernal Calliope of Coulrophobic,” “Sadistic Autocracy of MakeitStop” and “Violent Enforcement of 8th Nemesis.” A smaller number of nations emphasise their goodness: “Co-operative Society of PaxBritannia,” “Esprit de Corps of Champagne-Ardenne” and “Really Nice People of Azkaspaz.”

Surprisingly few nations refer to existing fictional worlds in their pretitle, e.g., “Class M planet of Three Cities [Star Trek],” “Unrepentant Behemoth of Mr Fat Tony [The Simpsons]” and “Eye stalk of Dalek [Doctor Who].”