Why was Vanuatu formerly called the New Hebrides?

Vanuatu was formerly known as the New Hebrides because the British captain James Cook named the island group after the Hebrides—an archipelago located off the western coast of Scotland—when he mapped the region in 1774.1

Following this naming, the islands were later placed under the joint administration of Britain and France, functioning as an Anglo-French condominium from 1906 until the country achieved independence in 1980. Upon gaining its sovereignty, the nation adopted the name Vanuatu, which means "Our Land Forever" in many local Melanesian languages.213