Solomon Islands
Name

In 1568, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to visit the Solomon Islands archipelago but did not name the archipelago at that time, only certain individual islands. Though not named by Mendaña, the islands were subsequently referred to as Islas Salomón (Solomon Islands) by others following reports of his voyage optimistically conflated with stories of the wealthy biblical King Solomon, believing them to be the Bible-mentioned city of Ophir. During most of the colonial period, the territory's official name was the "British Solomon Islands Protectorate" until independence in 1978, when it was changed to "Solomon Islands" as defined in the Constitution of Solomon Islands and as a Commonwealth realm under this name.

The definite article, "the", has not been part of the country's official name since independence but remains for all references to the area pre-independence and is sometimes used, both within and outside the country. Colloquially, the islands are referred to simply as "the Solomons".
keywords:frequency, punctuation:no_comma