The name Benin has no proper connection to Benin City in modern day Nigeria, which was the capital of the Benin Empire. The name Dahomey was changed in 1975 to the People’s Republic of Benin, named after the body of water on which the country lies, the [[Bight of Benin] (which was named after the Empire of Benin. This name was picked for Dahomey due to its neutrality, since the current political boundaries of Benin encompass over fifty distinct linguistic groups and nearly as many individual ethnic groups.
The former name, Dahomey, was derived from the name of a former Fon Kingdom within modern-day Benin, and was determined to be an inappropriate name.
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