It’s no more or less a definite place than Auckland, so why does one have a definite article and the other not? Here I want to consider the way the is used in place names. All names, including place names, are definite, whether they have a definite article the or not: Auckland and The Hague both refer to equally definite locations. Perhaps the best we can say is that some place names come with a the and some come without it, and you just have to know which is which. For example, what used to be called The Solomon Islands (and still is on the door of their high commission in Wellington) is often called Solomon Islands.

Source: Stuff December 06, 2020 15:56 UTC