If you’re trying to think of what country starts with X letter, you might find yourself stumped. It turns out this isn’t a trick of memory – it’s a quirk of geography and language. In fact, no officially recognized sovereign country in the world has a name that starts with “X.”

This curious fact often surprises people, and it leads to an interesting exploration of why the letter X is absent at the start of country names. In this article, we’ll delve into the reasons behind this alphabetical oddity, look at some places and names associated with “X,” and share a few fun facts about country names and alphabets along the way.

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No Country Name Begins with ‘X’

There are approximately 195 countries in the world today (the exact number can vary slightly based on definitions), and their names start with almost every letter of the alphabet – almost. Out of the 26 letters in English, 24 letters are used as the first letter of at least one country’s name.

The two letters that do not start any country name are “W” and “X.” In other words, you won’t find any country listed under X (or W) in an atlas or the United Nations member roll.

This means that if you go down an alphabetical list of countries, you’ll skip straight from those starting with “V” (like Vietnam or Venezuela) to those starting with “Y” (like Yemen), completely bypassing X. X is the one letter that no country name starts with in English.

(Even “W” is tricky – there is no fully recognized sovereign state beginning with W either, although “Western Sahara” is a territory and “Wales” is a country within the UK, not an independent nation.) So X stands out as the missing letter in the A-to-Z of country names.

To give a sense of how unusual this is, consider some other rare initials for countries: Only one country starts with Q (Qatar), only one starts with O (Oman), and only one starts with Y (Yemen). Many letters are much more common – for example, there are dozens of countries beginning with S or B.

Yet no nation at all claims the letter X as the first letter of its name. Even within country names, the letter “x” is rare. In fact, just two country names in English contain the letter X anywhere in the name: Mexico and Luxembourg. And notably, both of those still start with a different letter (M and L, respectively). This makes “X” truly an outlier in country nomenclature.

Why Is ‘X’ So Rare in Country Names?

What makes the letter X so uncommon at the start of names, especially country names? The reasons are largely linguistic and historical.

One big factor is that “X” is a rare initial sound in the languages from which country names originate. In English (and many other languages), very few words start with the X sound. When X does appear at the beginning of an English word, it usually makes a “z” sound (as in xylophone or Xavier) or sometimes an “ex” sound (as in X-ray or Xanthan).

These words are often borrowed from Greek or other languages (for example, xylophone comes from Greek). Native English words typically don’t begin with X – and by extension, names of places that came into English usage rarely start with X either.

Now, consider how countries get their names. A country’s name often comes from a tribe or ethnic group (like France from the Franks, or Turkey from the Turks), a geographical description (South Africa for its location in Africa), or a historical/political figure (Colombia after Columbus).

These source words or names are rooted in various languages – Latin, Arabic, Chinese, indigenous languages of the Americas, and so on. Seldom do those origin words begin with an “X.” The letter X might represent certain sounds (like a “sh” or “kh” or “ks” sound) within those languages, but it’s rarely the first letter in the names of peoples or places that became country names.

For example, many country names in Europe come from Latin or Germanic roots where “X” isn’t used at the start. In Africa and Asia, a lot of country names were Anglicized (turned into English forms) by colonial powers or through historical usage – and those names tend to start with letters that correspond to common sounds (A, B, C, etc.) rather than an X.

If an area’s local name did start with an “X” sound, often it was transliterated differently. A case in point is Mexico: the original name comes from the Nahuatl word Mēxihco (pronounced roughly “Meshico”). The Spanish conquerors wrote this with an X (as “México”) because in old Spanish the letter X represented a “sh” sound.

Eventually, the pronunciation shifted to a hard “h” sound in Spanish, but the spelling remained México (and in English we use an x but pronounce it with a /ks/ sound: “Meks-ico”). Mexico’s name starts with M, not X, despite containing an X in the middle. This illustrates that even when X appears in a country name, it’s not in the initial position.

Another reason is simply coincidence and convention. There is no rule forbidding countries from starting with X – it has just turned out that none have. If tomorrow a new country were established and its people chose a name beginning with X, it would break the pattern.

But historically, it just so happens no country’s official name (in English) has started with that letter. “X” is a bit of an alphabetical loner in this sense.

Places and Regions That Start with ‘X’

Even though no independent nation begins with X, the letter does appear at the start of many place names and regions around the world. These are not countries, but they are still notable geographical or political entities. Here are a few examples:

Xinjiang, China

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is a large region in northwestern China. Its name Xinjiang means “New Frontier” or “New Territory” in Chinese. This region is often in the news and is roughly the size of Western Europe – but it’s part of China, not a separate country.

The name starts with X because of the pinyin romanization of the Chinese characters 新疆 (Xīnjiāng). In English we use the Chinese name, so it begins with X.

Xizang (Tibet)

Xizang is the Chinese name for Tibet (the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China). In Chinese, Xi means “West,” and Zang is related to an old name for Tibet, often interpreted as “treasure” or “storage.”

So Xizang has been translated by some as “Western Treasure Storehouse.” Internationally, we usually call the region Tibet, but on Chinese maps you’ll see Xizang starting with X.

Xai-Xai, Mozambique

Xai-Xai (pronounced roughly “shy-shy”) is a port city and the capital of Gaza Province in Mozambique, on the southeastern coast of Africa. The name comes from a local African language (Changana/Tsonga) and, interestingly, it means “the place where one can rest.”

Xai-Xai is a city, not a country, but it’s a good example of an “X” name outside of China. Mozambique was a Portuguese colony, and the Portuguese language also uses X (pronouncing it like a “sh” sound in this case), which is why the city’s name is written with an X in the Latin alphabet.

Xi’an, China

This city is one of China’s oldest and most famous (home of the Terracotta Army). Xi’an’s name starts with X in English because it’s another pinyin romanization (西安, Xī’ān, meaning “Western Peace”). While Xi’an is just a city, not a nation, its prominence makes it a well-known example of a place that begins with X.

These examples show that “X” does mark the spot on some maps, just not next to a sovereign country’s name. From regions of China to towns in Africa, the letter X can start local and regional names, typically where local languages or transliteration conventions use X.

‘X’ in Other Languages and Alphabets

While no country’s English name starts with X, it’s interesting to see how the letter X appears in other languages’ versions of country names. Different languages have different spelling rules, and in some languages, a country that we know by a C or J in English might be spelled with an X. Here are a couple of intriguing cases:

Catalan: Catalan is a language spoken in parts of Spain (like Catalonia and Andorra) and it uses X for certain sounds. In Catalan, several country names that in English start with C or Ch are spelled with X. For example, China is Xina in Catalan, Chile is Xile, and Cyprus is Xipre. All three Catalan names start with X (pronounced like a soft “sh” sound). It’s the same country, just a different language’s spelling. So if you’re reading a map or document in Catalan, you actually will see some countries listed under X – they’re just the Catalan forms of those names.
Galician: Galician, another language from northwestern Spain (close to Portuguese), similarly uses X for the sound that English usually represents with J or Ge. In Galician, Japan is Xapón, Jordan is Xordania, Jamaica is Xamaica, Georgia (the country) is Xeorxia, and Djibouti is Xibuti. Once again, these are the same countries we know, but the Galician spelling puts an X at the beginning. So in a Galician alphabetic list, you’d find a handful of country names under X!
Chinese (Pinyin transliteration): We saw with Xinjiang and Xizang that Chinese place names often use X in pinyin. The same goes for some country names when written in pinyin (the phonetic romanization of Chinese characters). For instance, Spain in Chinese is Xībānyá (西班牙), so if you write it in our alphabet it starts with X. Greece is Xīlà (希腊), Hungary is Xióngyálì (匈牙利), and Syria is Xùlìyǎ (叙利亚). None of these countries start with X in English (we call them Spain, Greece, Hungary, Syria), but in Chinese transliteration you see X as the first letter. This happens because the syllable “Xi” in pinyin represents a “shee” sound, which is a common beginning sound in Chinese names for foreign countries.

What these examples show is that the letter “X” isn’t inherently taboo or unused globally – it’s just a matter of how different languages name places.

In English, X has ended up not being used as a starting letter for country names, but other languages might put X in that position for their own spelling reasons. It’s a fun reminder that country names can look quite different from language to language, even though they refer to the same place.

Alphabetical Trivia and Naming Conventions

The fact that no country starts with X leads to some fun trivia. For one, it means any A-to-Z list of countries will have a gap at X (and usually W as well).

If you’ve ever played a geography alphabet game, you probably had an easy time naming a country for most letters, but got stuck on X – that’s when you learn the answer is “none!” Some quiz games even deliberately ask “What country begins with X?” knowing the trick is that there isn’t a real one.

International organizations also reflect this quirk. In United Nations meetings or Olympic ceremonies, countries are often arranged alphabetically (usually by their English names or the host nation’s language).

You’ll hear Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria… and later Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom… Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. But you’ll never hear a delegation marching for a country starting with X, simply because no nation claims that spot. It’s a small detail, but it stands out once you notice it.

From a naming conventions standpoint, countries are named through a mix of history, language, and sometimes a dash of politics. There’s often meaning behind a name – for example, “New Zealand” was named by Dutch explorers (after the Dutch province of Zeeland), “Costa Rica” means “Rich Coast” in Spanish, and “Nepal” is said to come from an old local term meaning “at the foot of the mountains.”

None of these happen to start with X, and that’s largely because of the languages and words involved. It’s mostly coincidence that no country’s name (in English) started with X, but it also reflects how uncommon that letter/sound is in the sources of country names.

One more interesting tidbit: in the world of two-letter country codes (like US for United States or FR for France), the codes that start with X are actually reserved for special use (often for territories or for private custom codes).

It’s as if even in coding, X is set aside rather than given to a country. For example, you won’t see a country code “X” on international car plates or internet domains; those are kept for things like fictitious examples or special purposes. This isn’t because of the letter X per se, but it nicely mirrors the fact that no country gets the letter X to itself.

Conclusion

In summary, there is no sovereign country in the world that starts with the letter X. This absence comes down to linguistic and historical happenstance – the letter X isn’t a common starting letter for the names of peoples, places, or concepts that have become country names in English.

While X plays a role in many place names (from Xinjiang to Xai-Xai) and shows up in various languages’ spellings of country names (like Xina for China in Catalan, or Xapón for Japan in Galician), not a single independent nation’s name (in English) begins with X.

This makes “X” a peculiar and interesting footnote in geography quizzes and alphabetical lists. It’s a reminder of how diverse and varied the world’s languages are in naming places – and how the English alphabet still has a couple of unused slots when it comes to country names.

So the next time someone asks, “What country starts with X?” you can confidently answer: none – and then share a few of these fun facts about the letter X and world geography!