On 09/04/13 13:27, John Haxby wrote:
our guide told us a little of the history of the island including the fact that comparatively recently it had become independent from the Netherlands.
Wheee-eww! Your guide got it totally backwards. Bonaire is a special municipality of the Netherlands. That is, unlike (say) Aruba, it is part of the Netherlands, not one of the constituents of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. BQ is a collection of three such special municipalities, Bonaire being the most populous.
That would seem to counter the proposed name on both counts :)
As far as I can tell, "Bonaire" typically refers just to the island of Bonaire, not to the entire territory. I couldn't find an example of someone calling the entire territory "Bonaire" (much as people often call the United Kingdom "Great Britain"). So I don't think just "Bonaire" would work. The names I found in common use for the territory were "Caribbean Netherlands", "Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba", and "the BES Islands". "Caribbean Netherlands" seemed the most common. It's not a big deal either way, of course.**