Zimbabwe Toponymic Factfile

TOPONYMIC FACTFILE
Zimbabwe
Country name Zimbabwe
State title Republic of Zimbabwe
Name of citizen Zimbabwean
Chewa (nya), Chibarwe (seh), English (eng),

Kalanga (kck), Koisan (-), Nambya (nmq), Ndau
Official languages (ndc), Ndebele (nde), Shangani (tso), Shona (sna),
sign language (-), Sotho (sot), Tonga (toi), Tswana
(tsn), Venda (ven) and Xhosa (xho)1
Country name in official languages Zimbabwe
Rudhende rwe Zimbabwe (sn)

State title in principal official languages Republic of Zimbabwe (eng)
(no source for Ndebele)
Script Roman script
Romanization System Not required
ISO-3166 code (alpha-2/alpha-3) ZW/ZWE
Capital Harare
Area / Population 391,000km2 / 15.5million (2023 est.)2
Introduction
Zimbabwe gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1980 3 . Landlocked, it shares land
boundaries with Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. Its average elevation is almost
1000m.
Geographical names policy
For HMG use, geographical names should be taken from official sources from Zimbabwe, where
these are available. The national mapping agency is believed to be the Department of the Surveyor
General (Zimap) though no further information or sources are known.
If no national official sources can be found, the Africa Geoportal may be used as a helpful source of
geospatial data and names4; the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) Geographic Names Server
can also be used as a source for names.
1 ISO 639 codes are given for languages mentioned in this Factfile where they exist.
2 https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/zimbabwe/
3 Zimbabwe was adopted as the country name on independence, previously having been Southern Rhodesia.
4 This is a source collated from multiple sources, including Esri, organisations working in Africa and
crowdsourced information. It should be used as a supplementary reference.

© Crown Copyright 2024 1
OFFICIAL
TOPONYMIC FACTFILE
Languages
Article 6 of Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution records 16 official languages, namely Chewa (nya),
Chibarwe (seh), English (eng), Kalanga (kck), Koisan (-), Nambya (nmq), Ndau (ndc), Ndebele (nde),
Shangani (tso), Shona (sna), sign language (-), Sotho (sot), Tonga (toi), Tswana (tsn), Venda (ven) and
Xhosa (xho).
Of these, Shona and Ndebele are significantly the most widely spoken 5 . English, as the former
colonial language, is used by very few as a home language, but widely as a commercial language.
Shona6 and Ndebele7 are Bantu languages; both are written in Roman script, Shona additionally
using an apostrophe after /n/ for the sounds /ng/.
Map of Zimbabwe
Map produced by PCGN for illustrative purposes only, and is not to be taken necessarily as representing the views of the UK government
on boundaries or political status.
5 Zimbabwe’s population is made up predominantly of two ethnic groups: the majority Shona (around 71%)
and the Ndebele (approximately 16%).
6 Shona includes whistled sibilants (fricative and affricate) sounds, and some dialects include dental clicks.
7 Ndebele is very close to Zulu and includes multiple click sounds. It is written in Roman script, and its
alphabet contains all the letters of the English alphabet with the exception of “r”.

OFFICIAL
TOPONYMIC FACTFILE
Administrative structure
Zimbabwe is composed of 8 provinces and 2 cities with provincial status (Bulawayo and Harare) at
the first-order administrative level.8
ISO 3166-
ADM1 Administrative centre Location of centre
2 code
Bulawayo ZW-BU Bulawayo 20°09’00”S 28°35’00”E
Harare ZW-HA Harare 17°49’04”S 31°02’41”E
Manicaland ZW-MA Mutare 18°58’15”S 32°41’50”E
Mashonaland Central ZW-MC Bindura 17°18’07”S 31°19’15”E
Mashonaland East ZW-ME Marondera 18°11’07”S 31°33’07”E
Mashonaland West ZW-MW Chinhoyi 17°22’00”S 30°12’00”E
Masvingo ZW-MV Masvingo 20°03’49”S 30°49’40”E
Matabeleland North ZW-MN Lupane 18°55’53”S 27°48’25”E
Matabeleland South ZW-MS Gwanda 20°56’10”S 29°00’25”E
Midlands ZW-MI Gweru 19°27’00”S 29°49’00”E
Post-independence name changes
In the years immediately following Zimbabwe’s independence many name changes were made, not
only of towns and rivers, but also of buildings and streets. These changes both altered colonial
names (such as Salisbury to Harare), and rectified spellings of place names in local languages (such
as Sinoia to Chinhoyi).
A list of changes to significant features is shown in the PCGN paper Zimbabwe-March 2002.pdf
(nationalarchives.gov.uk) and a more complete list in the PCGN paper List of name changes since
independence, 1987 [available on request].
8 http://www.zimstat.co.zw/dmdocuments/CensusPreliminary2012.pdf
OFFICIAL
TOPONYMIC FACTFILE
Other Significant Locations
PCGN
Variant
Recommended Location Feature Type
Names/Spellings
Name9
Inyangani 18°17′44″S 32°50′31″E Mountain (2,592 m)
Reservoir (world's largest
Lake Kariba 17°00′00″S 28°00′00″E reservoir by volume:
Zambia, Zimbabwe)
River (South Africa,
Limpopo 25°12′22″S 33°30′40″E Botswana, Zimbabwe,
Mozambique)
Waterfalls (Zimbabwe,
Victoria Falls 17°55′00″S 25°51′00″E
Zambia)
River (Zambia, Angola,
Zambezi River (eng);
Zambezi 08°34′14″S 36°28′13″E Namibia, Botswana,
Rio Zambeze (por)
Zimbabwe, Mozambique)
Useful references
• Africa Geoportal: https://www.africageoportal.com/

• BBC Country Profile: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14113249
• CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/zimbabwe/
• Ethnologue: www.ethnologue.com (for information on languages)
• FCDO Geographical Names Index (GNI):
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/geographical-names-and-information
• FCDO Travel Advice: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/zimbabwe
• ISO Online Browsing Platform (OBP): https://www.iso.org/obp/ui#home
• Omniglot: www.omniglot.com (for information on languages and scripts)
• PCGN Country Names list: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/country-names
• PCGN country name change timeline: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/country-
names/timeline-of-country-name-changes-in-hmg-use-1919-to-present
• PCGN paper on the toponymy of Zimbabwe, 2002:
https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20140402151908mp_/http://www.pcgn.or
g.uk/Zimbabwe-March%202002.pdf
• PCGN paper: Zimbabwe: List of name changes since independence, 1987 [available on request]
• Unicode: www.unicode.org
• US Board on Geographic Names GEOnet Names Server: GNS Search & Download WebApp
(nga.mil)
Compiled by PCGN
[email protected]
www.gov.uk/pcgn
February 2024
9PCGN usually recommends conventional English names for international features, unless national variants
are specifically required, or the relevant countries share an official language.
OFFICIAL

Zimbabwe Toponymic Factfile

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Zimbabwe Toponymic Factfile

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Zimbabwe Toponymic Factfile

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

TOPONYMIC FACTFILE

State title Republic of Zimbabwe

Name of citizen Zimbabwean

Chewa (nya), Chibarwe (seh), English (eng),

Rudhende rwe Zimbabwe (sn)

Script Roman script

Romanization System Not required

ISO-3166 code (alpha-2/alpha-3) ZW/ZWE

Area / Population 391,000km2 / 15.5million (2023 est.)2

Geographical names policy

crowdsourced information. It should be used as a supplementary reference.

© Crown Copyright 2024 2

Harare ZW-HA Harare 17°49’04”S 31°02’41”E

Manicaland ZW-MA Mutare 18°58’15”S 32°41’50”E

Mashonaland Central ZW-MC Bindura 17°18’07”S 31°19’15”E

Mashonaland East ZW-ME Marondera 18°11’07”S 31°33’07”E

Mashonaland West ZW-MW Chinhoyi 17°22’00”S 30°12’00”E

Masvingo ZW-MV Masvingo 20°03’49”S 30°49’40”E

Matabeleland North ZW-MN Lupane 18°55’53”S 27°48’25”E

Matabeleland South ZW-MS Gwanda 20°56’10”S 29°00’25”E

Midlands ZW-MI Gweru 19°27’00”S 29°49’00”E

Post-independence name changes

• Africa Geoportal: https://www.africageoportal.com/

You might also like