A good find in Internet via Google...
"HELVETIA = Switzerland
The name of the Helvetians lived on in the Latin name of Switzerland,Helvetia during the Middle Ages, when Latin was used as a common European language for diplomacy and science. The Swiss Revolution of 1798was first of all a rebellion against the supremacy of the founders of theOld Swiss Confederacy, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and the cities of Lucerne, Zurich and Bern over the rest of the country. So it seems quite logical that the revolutionaries preferred the Latin name Helvetia to the colloquial name Schweiz(in German, derived from Schwyz) or Suisse (in French). Consequently they proclaimed the Helvetic Republic. The name was changed back again when the revolutionary experiment failed. In the Latin form it continued to exist, however.
Today, Helvetia is used as a keyword for Switzerland when a short name not depending on one of the four official languages spoken in different parts of Switzerland is needed.
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So the label HELVETIA can be found on Swiss coins and postal stamps, while the abbreviation ch stands for Confoederatio Helvetica, the Latin version of "Swiss Confederation" (hence the CH-sticker on Swiss cars and Switzerland's top level internet domain .ch).
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Swiss aircraft are identified by HB-... (H=Helvetia, B=second country code beginning with H) and Swiss radio amateurs by HB9...."
By the way, in Latin, the word Helvetia means help.
