Kiribati (officially the Republic of Kiribati is an independent island nation in the central Pacific Ocean. It was formerly part of Gilbert and Ellice Islands before it gained its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming a sovereign state in 1979.
The name Kiribati was adopted in 1979 at independence. It is the Gilbertese rendition of Gilberts, the plural of the English name of the nation’s main archipelago, the Gilbert Islands. It was named îles Gilbert (French for Gilbert Islands) in about 1820 by Russian admiral Adam von Krusenstern and French captain Louis Duperrey, after the British captain Thomas Gilbert. Gilbert and captain John Marshall sighted some of the islands in 1788, while crossing the “outer passage” route from Port Jackson to Canton.
The name Gilbert, already in the name of the British protectorate since 1892, was incorporated into the name of the entire Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony (GIEC) from 1916 and was retained after the Ellice Islands became the separate nation of Tuvalu in 1976.
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