> In Ireland, the term "British Isles" is controversial, and there are objections to its usage. The Government of Ireland does not officially recognise the term, and its embassy in London discourages its use. Britain and Ireland is used as an alternative description, and Atlantic Archipelago has also seen limited use in academia.
Amusingly (but perhaps not surprisingly), British imperialism briefly waded into this dispute as well:
> Following British attempts to control the seaway in the late 1830s, the Times Journal, published in London in 1840, referred to the Persian Gulf as the "Britain Sea", but this name was never used in any other context.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Gulf_naming_dispute
Has anyone proposed a viable alternative?
Great Britain may have been named after one of the isles, but the controversy arises because the UK spans (part of, but not all of) the two main isles.
> Has anyone proposed a viable alternative?
I don't know what would count as "viable" if you reject "Britain and Ireland" and "Atlantic Archipelago".
> Great Britain may have been named after one of the isles
Great Britain is the largest island of the isles. The UK's full name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; ie there's no political entity of Great Britain (and never has been).
Indeed. I suppose if Ireland's full name were "The Republic of Little Britain" there wouldn't be a controversy about the term "British Isles".
> there's no political entity of Great Britain (and never has been).
Unless you include the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1801):