Why is the United Kingdom tld uk?

When it's ISO country code is "GB" or "GBR"?

Because us Brits arn't as finicky as the rest of the world (j/k :-))

I think it is more to do with the way the 4 countries have moved forward together under the name United Kingdom. Most people I know if asked 'Where do you come from?' simply state UK, because it's easy and people recognise it. Obviously there are those that are ummmm finicky and would respond, England, Scotland, Wales etc but where I am now if a scotsman was stood next to me and someone asked him where he came from and he replied Scotland, they would most likely say 'err where?'.

When living in foriegn parts it's surprising how un educated people are geographically.

Also the fact that it is the 'United' Kingdom where United is the key word, if they were to create seperate TLD's for the four countries it wouldn't be long before the 'United' States of America started asking for seperate TLD's for each state.

I'm just glad I don't have to be one of the people who makes these decisions.

Well I know that if you call a Scottsman a Pom he will be very ticked off at you

I could be wrong with this, but I think it's to do with the "British Empire", which used to comprise of many more countries outside of the British Isles. The United Kingdom typically comprises of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, whereas the older term, "Great Britain" used to cover all of the countries under British Sovereignty (e.g. Hong Kong, India). Therefore, when the powers that be decided to give the TLD as "uk", they probably thought they could do so knowing that no-one would get confused as to what countries this TLD covered. I guess they were wrong on that one, given the nature of this conversation.

Either way, "United Kingdom" is the most modern definition for the countries. I'm sure that there's some historical document lying around on the Net somewhere that details all of this more accurately than I can.

Andreas: I can assure you that calling an Englishman a "Pom" will provoke a similar reaction to calling a Scotsman one.

as i understand it:

if you read a british passport it reads something like "the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland" - what i get from this is that a) "great britain" comprises wales, england and scotland b) the "united kingdom" refers to wales, england, scotland and northern ireland and c) [by elimination] the "british isles" is essentially a geographical term for the islands, including southern ireland (eire).

that said, if you read the front cover of a recent british passport, it says "european union".

the overseas territories have probably been called by several names down the years, but - when i last looked - they were called "british dependent territories". you pay less tax in them, and the weather is usually warmer.

it says "european union".

Yuck!

Thanks to everyone on the other side of the pond that replied- I figured it was some kind of pride thing, but it didn't make sense to me. Still doesn't, I was just wondering if there was some kind of story behind it, as most other countries follow the ISO country codes for their TLDs.

As an aside, I visited Scotland a year ago. I had a great time- one thing that one of the locals pointed out (he was Scottish and proud of it) was the fact that no one knows what to call the UK- Great Britain? United Kingdom? It's an empire without a name, and the lack of unity among the different parts was a strength and a weakness. Not trying to start a debate, just making a comment.

I liked Scotland a lot, FWIW.