There are a number of alternative names for Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland consists of six historic counties of Ireland, and remains part of the United Kingdom following the independence of the other twenty-six counties as the Irish Free State in 1922 (now the Republic of Ireland, officially named "Ireland"). In addition to, and sometimes instead of, its official name, several other names are used for the region. Significant differences in political views between unionists and Irish nationalists are reflected in the variations of names they use for the region. A proposal to change Northern Ireland's legal name to Ulster was seriously considered by the UK and Northern Ireland Governments in 1949 but in the end, the name "Northern Ireland" was retained. Names Legal name The official and legal name of the region is Northern Ireland. The legal name is used by both the British and Irish governments, internationally by governments around the world, and by most of its inhabitants. Political names Unionist-associated names Ulster is often used by unionists and some media outlets in the UK. This is the Hiberno-Norse form of the province of Uladh (pronounced "Ull-ah") (Irish Uladh and Old Norse ster, meaning "province", yields "Uladh Ster" or, in English, "Ulster"). Examples of official use of this term are the Ulster Unionist Party, the University of Ulster, and the BBC Radio Ulster. This term is disliked by some nationalists because the whole of the Province of Ulster consists of nine counties – three of which, County Monaghan, County Cavan and County Donegal, are in the Republic of Ireland. Unionists have argued that because Ulster's size has changed much over the centuries, Ulster can be applied to Northern Ireland alone. The Government of Northern Ireland once considered a proposal to change the official name to Ulster. Some also reject the claim of the Republic of Ireland to have inherited the tradition of the Irish Republic of the Irish War of Independence, because it excludes the north east, and refer to the Republic variously as the Free State or The Twenty-Six Counties. The Province is also sometimes used, referring directly to the status of Northern Ireland as a "province" of the United Kingdom. This also, however, could be obliquely used to refer to the province of Ulster; and since no other constituent part of the United Kingdom is known as a province, a less controversial usage is "the region". In