Confusing Country Names

While reading the Tales of the City books, I became confused about the country of Guyana in South America. I had always thought it was in Africa, but it turns out I was confusing it with either Ghana or Guinea. That's not the only set of countries with easily confused names:

Angola in Africa and Anguilla in the Caribbean
Angola is a country on Africa's west coast that ended a 27 year civil war in 2002. The war had started in 1975 when they became independent from Portugal and continued until the death of Jonas Savimbi, who had led one of the warring factions.
Anguilla is an island territory of the UK that has been under British rule since 1650 when English settlers from Saint Kitts colonized it.

Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo, both in Africa They border each other in Central Africa and the Democratic Republic (formerly Zaire) is almost 7 times the size of the Republic. More differences between these two are best explained on Wikipedia.

Mauritania and Mauritius, both in Africa
Mauritania is a medium sized country on the west coast of mainland Africa, while Mauritius is a small island in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar. Mauritania had a bloodless coup in August 2005 and the party in power claims to be preparing for genuine democracy. Mauritius has been a democracy since it's independence from the UK in 1968. It also has one of Africa's highest per capita incomes.

Slovakia and Slovenia, both in Europe
Both are former parts of Communist countries that joined NATO and the EU in the Spring of 2004. Slovakia was paired with the Czech Republic to make Czechoslovakia and Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia.

But the most confusing set of Countries have to be these:

Gabon and The Gambia, both in Africa
Both countries are on the Africa's west coast. The Gambia is further north and surrounded by Senegal on all sides but its Atlantic Coast, while Gabon is on the Equator and borders Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Republic of Congo.

They are slightly less confusing than: Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau in Africa; French Guiana and Guyana in South America; and Grenada in the Caribbean because all seven have the G-N-A pattern in their names.

Equatorial Guinea, which is near but not actually on the Equator, is the only country in Africa with Spanish as the official language. Its current leader Obiang took power from his uncle after executing him in 1979.
Ghana is the home country of Kofi Annan, the current Secretary-General of the UN. It's one of the three "tall" countries (along with Togo and Benin) on the southern coast of Africa's northwestern region.
Guinea is also on Africa's northwestern coast and became independent from France in 1958. Since then, there have only been two real leaders of the country that is still struggling economically.
Guinea-Bissau is very small and one of the poorest countries in the world. The citizens have suffered coups, questionable elections and civil war since the early 80's.
French Guiana is on South America's north coast and still belongs to France. As part of France, it's part of the EU and still has a disputed border with it's neighbor, Suriname.
Guyana is also in South America, on the other side of Suriname. It became independent from the UK in 1966, but many of it's citizens still emigrate there, and to the US and Canada, which has caused a population decrease. There are an estimated 500,000 Guyanese living abroad, while the country's current population is only about 750,000.
Grenada is an island nation in the Caribbean, and has been battered by two recent hurricanes, Ivan in September of 2004 and Emily in July of 2005. It is considered a Commonwealth Realm and recognizes Queen Elizabeth as its monarch.