G'day Tony,
What is the name of that country in the middle of Europe, famous for its sausages and beer? Deutschland or Germany? How about the big one on the bottom left, Sandwiched between France and North Africa? Spain or EspaƱa? Is it The Netherland or Nederland, Italy or Italia, Japan or Nihon, Sweden or Sverige?
Nederland, of course. (Dutch grandparents, eh?). But why don't we just call it "Holland"? More English speakers do than not, after all.
And I note that [[Burma]] redirects to [[Myanmar]]. Now, where *I* come from, we called it "Burma" and were bloody proud of the fact[0]; what's the deal, people? We're not letting Johnny Foreigner dictate to us proud English-speakers, are we?
Of course Ivory Coast is the real name of the country, just as Royaume Uni is the real French name of the UK, and it would be a very fatheaded French speaker indeed who insisted on parking the article on the UK under United Kingdom where hardly anybody would look for it.
Anecdotally, Cote d'Ivoire (excuse the lack of accents; I couldn't be bothered looking them up) is becoming much more prominent in English. This may be because of football (futebol, fussball ... soccer ...). The World Game bringing people together! Oh, the old eyes just cannot but well up with tears, eh? Of course, that's not a reason to move, but we may want to keep in mind that in ten or fifteen years' time we'll be wanting to bung it under the correct name after all.
I note (looking at the article now) that the national govt itself has requested that *all* nations refer to it as "Cote d'Ivoire". It would only be courteous do accede. It's their country, after all, not ours. Have other governments in similar situations --- the United Kingdom is an excelling example --- taken such a step? Have the French really told the English to "get knotted" (a much deadlier insult in French, obviously), or was the request never made?
[0] Okay, not really.
Cheers,