Geographical renaming

Geographical renaming is the changing of the name of a geographical feature or area. This can range from the uncontroversial change of a street name to a highly disputed change to the name of a country. Some names are changed locally but the new names are not recognised by other countries, especially when there is a difference in language. Other names may not be officially recognised but remain in common use. Many places have different names in different languages, and a change of language in official or general use has often resulted in what is arguably a change of name. There are many reasons to undertake renaming, with political motivation being the primary cause; for example many places in the former Soviet Union and its satellites were renamed to honour Stalin. Sometimes a place reverts to its former name (see for example de-Stalinization). One of the most common reasons for a country changing its name is newly acquired independence. When borders are changed, sometimes due to a country splitting or two countries joining together, the names of the relevant areas can change. This, however, is more the creation of a different entity than an act of geographical renaming.

Other more unusual reasons for renaming have included:

• To get rid of an inappropriate or embarrassing name
• As part of a sponsorship deal or publicity stunt

A change might see a completely different name being adopted or may only be a slight change in spelling.

In some cases established institutions preserve the old names of the renamed places in their names, such as the Pusan National University in Busan, South Korea; the Peking University in Beijing, People's Republic of China; Bombay Stock Exchange, IIT Bombay and the Bombay High Court in Mumbai, Republic of India; University of Madras, Madras Stock Exchange, the Madras High Court, and IIT Madras in Chennai, Republic of India; and the University of Malaya, Keretapi Tanah Melayu, in Federation of Malaysia.

Romanisation

Changes in romanisation systems can result in minor or major changes in spelling in the Roman alphabet for geographical entities, even without any change in name or spelling in the local alphabet or other writing system. Names in non-Roman characters can also be spelled very differently when Romanised in different European languages.

Chinese names

The People's Republic of China developed and adopted the Pinyin romanisation system in February 1958 in place of previous systems such as the Chinese Postal Map Romanisation and Wade–Giles. Many Chinese geographical entities (and associated entities named after geographical names) thus had their English names changed. The changes sometimes appeared drastic to non-Chinese speakers. Pinyin was adopted by the International Organization for Standardisation in 1982 and officially adopted in Singapore (resulting in several geographical name changes of its own). However it is usually not applied in the autonomous regions of the PRC (e.g.: Lhasa, Ürümqi, Hohhot, Xigazê, Ili, Altay, Kashgar, Hulunbuir, Erenhot), and has not resulted in any geographical name change in the SARs of Hong Kong and Macau, and is adopted only in parts of Taiwan, particularly within Taipei and other Kuomintang controlled cities and counties, in a recent push to adopt Pinyin by the Kuomintang government.

Examples of changes:

In the People's Republic of China

• Peking → Beijing
• Canton → Guangzhou
• Nanking → Nanjing
• Sian → Xi'an
• Tientsin → Tianjin

In the Republic of China (Taiwan)

• Shih-lin → Shilin
• Chung-cheng → Zhongzheng

In Singapore

• Peck San → Bishan
• Ao Kang → Hougang
• Nee Soon → Yishun

Korean names

The introduction of the Revised Romanization of Korean in place of the McCune–Reischauer system in July 2000 by the South Korean government has resulted in a string of changes to geographical names. The system is not adopted by North Korea. Examples of changes include:

• Pusan → Busan
• Kyongju → Gyeongju
• Taejeon → Daejeon
• Taegu → Daegu

Exonyms and endonyms

For geographical entities with multiple pre-existing names in one or more languages, an exonym or endonym may gradually be substituted and used in the English language.

• Transfer of a city between countries with very different patterns of phonology can result in seeming changes of name. Changes can be so slight as Straßburg (Germany) and Strasbourg (France). Some are more subtle; thus Selanik in the Ottoman Empire became Salonica in Greece; Pilsen in the Austro-Hungarian Empire became Plzeň in Czechoslovakia; Kishinev in the Russian Empire became Chişinau, Romania after World War I, reverted to Kishinev in the Soviet Union after World War II, and again Chişinau when Moldova achieved independence from the Soviet Union. Some are translations; Karlsbad became Karlovy Vary.

When the formerly-German city of Danzig came under Polish rule, it became known in English by its Polish name of Gdansk. Note well, though, that when Sir Winston Churchill gave his Iron Curtain speech he still spoke of a city in Poland by its German name (Stettin) instead of its then-current Polish name Szczecin even though Churchill fully accepted the transfer of the formerly-German city to Poland—probably because German phonology is far closer to that of English phonology than to Polish phonology. The pattern is far from uniform, and it takes time.

• The Soviet Union replaced German city names in the former East Prussia that became the Kaliningrad Oblast and Japanese place names in southern Sakhalin Island with Russian names unrelated to the old German and Japanese place names after annexing them in the aftermath of World War II.

• The military junta changed the official English name of Burma to Myanmar in 1988, even though both were pre-existing names which originated from the Burmese language and used interchangeably depending on contexts (see Names of Burma).

• Decolonisation in India saw a trend to adopt local names in place of Europe-centric ones since 1947. Since then, changes have included Chennai (from Madras in August 1996), Kolkata (from Calcutta in January 2001) and Mumbai (from Bombay in 1991), amongst many others.

• The People's Republic of China, upon its founding and new nationalities policy, changed the names of cities in ethnic minority regions from sometimes patronizing Chinese language names to those of the native language. For example, it changed Dihua to Ürümqi and Zhenxi to Barkol.

Changes resulting from splits and mergers

• Tajik SSR was previously Tajik ASSR, an autonomous republic within Uzbek SSR, but became a full Soviet Socialist Republic in 1929 in a partition of the existing regional entities in Central Asia
• Czechoslovakia got its name from the agglomeration of the Czech and Slovak peoples in 1918. It peacefully dissolved into the Czech and Slovak Republics in 1993.
• Yugoslavia ("Land of the South Slavs") was originally Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, created by joining Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro. It became Yugoslavia in 1929. It subsequently split into its constituent states in the years 1992-2006.
• Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined to become Tanzania
• Egypt and Syria were briefly joined as the United Arab Republic
• Malaya merged with Singapore and the northern Borneo territories of Sabah and Sarawak to become Malaysia in 1963.
• Various places split by compass directions, such as North and South Dakota, West Virginia and Virginia, North and South Korea, East and West Germany, etc. South Yemen was previously known as the Aden protectorate and by other names. Some of these were subsequently unified, such as Vietnam, Germany, and Yemen.

List of significant name changes

This is a list of internationally important or significant renamings.

Countries

• Bangladesh – East Pakistan from 1955 until 1971, formerly also known as East Bengal (India/Pakistan).
• Belarus – Byelorussia until 1991; also called White Russia.
• Belize – British Honduras until 1973
• Benin – Dahomey until 1975
• Botswana – formerly Bechuanaland
• Burkina Faso - Upper Volta until 1984
• Cambodia known as Khmer Republic 1971-1975, Kampuchea 1975-1991
• Central African Republic – from Ubangi-Shari on independence in 1958 (called Central African Empire from December 4, 1976 to September 20, 1979)
• Colombia – New Granada until 1819
• Republic of the Congo – formerly Middle Congo
• Democratic Republic of the Congo – was Zaire between 1971 and 1997; previously Belgian Congo
• Czech Republic – Bohemia until 1918, then part of Czechoslovakia until 1993
• Djibouti – formerly French Somaliland, then the Territory of the Afars and Issas until 1977
• East Timor – Portuguese Timor until 1975, since independence in 2002 also known as Timor-Leste
• Equatorial Guinea – Spanish Guinea until 1968
• Ethiopia – historically known as Abyssinia as well as Ethiopia
• Ghana – the Gold Coast until 1957
• Guinea – French Guinea until 1958
• Guinea-Bissau – Portuguese Guinea until 1974
• Guyana – British Guiana until 1966
• Indonesia – Netherlands East Indies until 1945
• Iran – although locally known as Iran since before the Sassanids (3rd to 7th centuries AD), also called Persia, from the Greek for Parsa, until officially named Iran in 1935
• Israel – (part of the) British Mandate of Palestine until 1948, however previously renamed by the Romans to Palestine from the Kingdom of Israel and Judea
• Ireland – before 1937 the Irish Free State. Was at one time referred to in English as Éire, which is the country's official Irish-language name, and is sometimes referred to by its description of the Republic of Ireland. Some British media still persist in usage of these two names. See also Names of the Irish state.
• Jordan – formerly Transjordan, and part of the British Mandate of Palestine before that.
• Kiribati – known as the Gilbert Islands before independence in 1979
• Lesotho – formerly Basutoland
• Malawi – Nyasaland until 1964
• Mali – French Sudan until 1960
• Mexico – New Spain until 1821
• Moldova – Moldavia until 1991
• Namibia – formerly South-West Africa
• Samoa – Western Samoa in 1997
• Serbia and Montenegro from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 2003. Split into two nations, Serbia and Montenegro, in 2006.
• Singapore - Temasik
• Sri Lanka from Ceylon in 1972
• Sudan – Anglo-Egyptian Sudan before 1956
• Suriname – formerly Dutch Guiana
• Taiwan - known historically as Formosa, Tungning, and by other names depending on colonisers and rulers. The modern state covers Taiwan and other islands is known as the Republic of China.
• Tajikistan – officially the Republic of Tajikistan - Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik SSR) until 1991
• Thailand – Siam until 1949.
• Togo – French Togoland before 1960
• Tuvalu – known as the Ellice Islands before independence in 1978
• Vanuatu – from New Hebrides in 1980 after gaining independence.
• Ukraine – from Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR) in 1991
• Uzbekistan – officially the Republic of Uzbekistan - Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR) until 1991
• Western Sahara – formerly Spanish Sahara
• Zambia – Northern Rhodesia until 1964
• Zimbabwe – part of Rhodesia until 1910; then known as Southern Rhodesia until a year before it declared independence in 1965; known as Rhodesia until 1979, then became Zimbabwe-Rhodesia until it assumed the current name in 1980.

Subnational entities

• Free State – formerly Orange Free State - (South Africa)
• Gauteng – formerly Pretoria Witwatersrand-Vereeninging - (South Africa)
• Hebei – formerly Chih-li (直隶) - (China)
• Kashmir and Jammu (princely state of India), today split as Jammu and Kashmir (India) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Pakistan)
• KwaZulu-Natal – formerly Natal - (South Africa)
• Limpopo – formerly Northern Province, formerly Northern Transvaal - (South Africa)
• Mpumalanga – formerly Eastern Transvaal - (South Africa)
• Newfoundland and Labrador – formerly Newfoundland - (Canada)
• Northwest Territories, Canada from North-West Territory in 1912.
• Papua – formerly Irian Jaya, Irian Barat, West New Guinea and Netherlands New Guinea. Also known as West Papua - (Indonesia)
• Phuket, an island belonging to Thailand in the Andaman Sea was formerly known as Talang in Thai, Ujong Salang in Malay and Junk Ceylon - (Thailand)
• Puducherry – formerly Pondicherry - (India)
• Sabah from British North Borneo in 1963 - (Malaysia)
• Sughd from Leninobod in 2004 - (Tajikistan)
• Tasmania – Large island south of mainland Australia which was formerly known as Van Diemen's Land - (Australia)

Cities and towns

• Attock, Pakistan was known as Campbellpur.
• Beijing – named Peiping from 1927 to 1949, during which time Nanking was the national capital.
• Bangalore, India – set to be changed to Bengaluru with state government approval in 2006 but yet to be ratified by the central government
• Bishkek, Kyrgystan, between 1926 and 1991 called Frunze
• Bogotá – Changed to Santa Fé de Bogotá D.C. (Distrito Capital) in 1991 from Bogotá D.E. (Distrito Especial). Changed back to the simplified Bogotá D.C. (Distrito Capital) in 2000.
• Bratislava, Slovakia, formerly Pozsony or Pressburg
• Busan – named Dongrae until 1910, during the Korean War it was the temporary capital. 1920 renamed to Busan.
• Châlons-en-Champagne, formerly Châlons-sur-Marne until 1998.
• Chemnitz in Saxony, Germany, was Karl-Marx-Stadt between 1953 and 1990.
• Cóbh, Ireland – formerly known as Queenstown
• Dhaka (capital of Bangladesh) – previously Dacca
• Daegu – formerly Dalgubeol
• Dobrich - known as Bagarzic between 1913–1940, Tolbuhin between 1945-1990. It was known Hacıoğlu Pazarcık during Ottoman rule
• Dún Laoghaire, Ireland – formerly known as Kingstown
• Faisalabad was known as Lyallpur (until 1970s) in Pakistan
• Harare – Salisbury until 1982. Other place names in Zimbabwe also changed.
• Heraklion in Crete, Greece: Its ancient name was Heraklion. After the Arab conquest in 824 it was named "Handaq" (The Moat) from which derived the Greek name "Chandax" in Byzantine times (961-1204) and later the Italian "Candia" during the Venetian period (1212–1669) when Candia eventually became the name of the whole island of Crete. In Turkish times (1669–1898) it was called "Kandiye" by the Ottomans but from the locals "Megalo Kastro" (Great Castle) or simply "Kastro". During the time of the autonomous Cretan State (1898–1913) scholars proposed to reuse the ancient name "Heraklion" which eventually was accepted by the locals.
• Ho Chi Minh City – formerly Saigon, changed in 1975 after the fall of South Vietnam
• Huambo, formerly Nova Lisboa, changed in 1975 after the independence of Angola
• İstanbul since 28 March 1930 – formerly Byzantium (under Greek rule) then Constantinople (under Roman and Ottoman rule); the latter name change inspired the popular song "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"
• Jakarta, – formerly Batavia and Sunda Kelapa, Jayakarta.
• Kaliningrad from Königsberg in 1946 (along with other cities in East Prussia)
• Kanpur, India – formerly known as Cawnpore
• Katowice in Silesia, Poland was Stalinogród between 1953 and 1956
• Kenora, Ontario, Canada from Rat Portage in 1905.
• Khujand in Tajikistan from Leninabad between 1939 and 1992. Khodjend before 1939
• Kimchaek in North Korea, formerly known as Songjin. Renamed during the Korean War after the chief of staff of the North Korean army killed during the war.
• Kinshasa – formerly Leopoldville, changed in 1966.
• Kitchener, Ontario was known as Berlin until 1916; it was changed due to hostility toward Germany in World War I. See Berlin to Kitchener name change
• Klaipėda from Memel in 1945
• Kochi, India – formerly Cochin.
• Kota Kinabalu from Jesselton in 1968
• Kollam, India – formerly Quilon.
• Kuressaare, Estonia – was named Kingissepa after an Estonian communist Viktor Kingissepp during the Soviet occupation, but was renamed Kuressaare again in 1988.
• Lake Station, Indiana, from East Gary, to disassociate itself from the adjacent city of Gary.
• Lubumbashi, formerly Élisabethville
• Lüshun – formerly Port Arthur in English, or Ryojun during the Japanese occupation in 1930s and 40s.
• Malabo – formerly Santa Isabel
• Maputo – formerly Lourenço Marques
• Mexico City – formerly the two altepetls (or polities) of Tlatelolco and Tenochtitlan
• Montana, Bulgaria - known as Kutlovitsa until 1890, Ferdinand between 1890–1945, Mihaylovgrad between 1945–1993
• New York – formerly New Amsterdam (see History of New York City)
• Nizhny Novgorod was Gorky during the Soviet Union.
• Oslo, Norway renamed Christiania when rebuilt after fire in 1624. Spelled Kristiania between 1877-1925 when the name returned to Oslo.
• Ottawa, known as Bytown until 1855.
• Podgorica, known as Titograd 1945-1992
• Polokwane, changed from Pietersburg in 2003, along with some other towns
• Port Klang, changed from Port Swettenham, the port of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Portlaoise, Ireland – formerly Maryborough.
• Pretoria to Tshwane – set to be changed to sound more African with local government approval in 2005 but yet to be ratified by the central government [1]
• Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada from Pile O' Bones or Pile-of-bones in 1882 in what was then the North-West Territory.
• Rijeka from Fiume in 1945
• Saltcoats, Saskatchewan, Canada from Stirling in what was then the North-West Territories.
• Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic was renamed to Ciudad Trujillo between 1936 and 1961 in a drive of personality cult around the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo that also affected Pico Duarte (renamed Pico Trujillo), several provinces, and other Dominican features.
• Seoul – formerly Hanyang (in 1392), then Hanseong (in 1395), Gyeongseong (in 1914) and renamed Seoul in 1946.
• Shenyang – formerly Mukden, Fengtian (奉天) or Shengjing (盛京).
• St Petersburg – originally St Petersburg (in 1703), then Petrograd (in 1914), Leningrad (in 1924) and back to St Petersburg in 1991
• Tel Aviv-Yafo- Renamed Tel Aviv from Ahuzat Bayit. Renamed to Tel Aviv-Yafo in 1950 after the annex of Yafo.
• Thiruvananthapuram, India – formerly Trivandrum.
• Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada in 1970 from the merger of twin cities of Fort William and Port Arthur.
• Tokyo – formerly Edo, until it became the capital of Japan in 1868
• Toronto – known as York at the time of the War of 1812
• Tver – known as Kalinin from 1931 to 1990
• Ürümqi – formerly known as Dihua, which means "to enlighten" in Chinese. In 1954, renamed to Ürümqi, which means "beautiful pasture" in Dzungar Mongol
• Varanasi, India, known as Benares
• Veles, known as Titov Veles between 1945 and 1991.
• Ventura, California, originally San Buenaventura, New Spain and Mexico
• Virden, Manitoba, Canada from Manchester
• Volgograd – originally Tsaritsyn, Stalingrad between 1925 and 1961.
• Wrocław– in German Breslau, when part of Germany, until 1945.
• Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada from Fort Garry in 1873.
• Xi'an – formerly Chang'an (长安), Sian, Chang'an was the ancient name for the city when it was the capital of China until the name was changed to Sian.
• Yangon– in 1988, back to this original name after a period 1852 - 1988, when known as Rangoon. Still known as 'Rangoon' in many English-speaking countries
• Yekaterinburg was known as Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union (the name of the city's railway station remains unchanged as Sverdlovsk)
• Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk was named Toyohara under Japanese rule between 1905 and 1945, but before that was Vladimirovka, a Russian settlement before the Russo-Japanese war.
• Zhob, Pakistan was renamed from Fort Sandeman in 1976.
• Zlín in the Czech Republic was called 'Gottwaldov' during the communist rule.

Unusual name changes

• Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, changed from the name "Hot Springs" in 1950 when Truth or Consequences host Ralph Edwards announced that he would do the show from the first town that renamed itself after the popular radio program.
• Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, formerly Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, negotiated a deal with the heirs of athlete Jim Thorpe to become the site of his tomb in a bid to increase tourism.
• Ismay, Montana, unofficially took the name of "Joe, Montana", after the NFL quarterback Joe Montana, as part of a 1993 publicity stunt
• Clark, Texas, renamed itself "DISH" after the EchoStar Communications' Dish Network – all 55 households in the town are given free satellite television for 10 years
• Buffalo, Texas, temporarily renamed itself "Blue Star, Texas" in 1993 and 1994 when the Dallas Cowboys faced the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl, and later renamed itself "Green Star, Texas" in 1999 when the Dallas Stars faced the Buffalo Sabres in the Stanley Cup Finals (Buffalo is approximately 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Dallas; in all three instances the supportive name change proved successful for the Dallas-area team)
• Halfway, Oregon, became the first place to accept the money from a dot-com to change its name to match the web site "Half.com"
• Santa, Idaho, a hamlet with a population of 115 became "secretsanta.com" on 9 December 2005 [2]
• Pippa Passes, Kentucky, originally Caney Creek but renamed after the Robert Browning poem Pippa Passes through the influence of Alice Spencer Geddes Lloyd, founder of Alice Lloyd College.
• Washington, Pennsylvania, temporarily renamed itself "Steeler" when the Pittsburgh Steelers made it to the Super Bowl in 2006. [3]
• Eastpointe, Michigan, incorporated as the village of Halfway in December 1924 and reincorporated as the City of East Detroit in January 1929. The city changed its name to "Eastpointe" after a vote in 1992; the name change had been proposed to reduce its association with the adjacent city of Detroit (a move that offended many Detroit residents), and the "-pointe" is intended to associate the city with the exclusive communities of the Grosse Pointes. However, the school district that serves most of the city was unaffected by the municipal name change and still uses the name East Detroit Public Schools, with the local high school being East Detroit High School.
• Sleepy Hollow, New York, renamed from North Tarrytown in 1997 in honor of the Washington Irving short story.
• On June 4–9 of each year, Dublin, Texas changes its name (and even its road signs) to Dr Pepper, Texas, to commemorate the anniversary of the first Dr Pepper Bottling Plant, which is located there.
• The Chilean Robinson Crusoe Island, renamed from "Más a Tierra" in 1966.
• The Spanish village Asquerosa (in Spanish, 'filthy') was renamed as Valderrubio (Pinos Puente municipality) in 1943.
• Topeka, Kansas, renamed itself Google, Kansas for the month of March 2010.
• Template:USCity briefly renamed itself "Mohito" in 2004 at the behest of the Bacardi company in honor of the mint grown at Delponte Farms, an essential ingredient in the drink.

Naming disputes

Sea of Japan naming dispute

• "British Isles" is disliked by many in Ireland
• The Hyphen War of 1990 – Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia?
• Denali naming dispute over the peak known as Mount McKinley
• Derry/Londonderry name dispute in Northern Ireland
• Indian renaming controversy
• Iran naming dispute starting in the 1930s
• Sea of Japan naming dispute
• Macedonia naming dispute
• Northern Ireland naming dispute
• Persian Gulf naming dispute starting in the 1960s
• Pretoria/Tshwane naming dispute over whether to change the city's name to a more Black African Tshwane, or keep its original name, Pretoria.
• West Bank/Judea and Samaria, disputed both between Israelis and Palestinians and between political factions inside Israel
• Servia/Serbia, exact date unknown, but quietly changed in opening days of World War I, just after war declared by Austria-Hungary on Servia/Serbia

See also

• Exonym and endonym
• List of city name changes
• List of administrative division name changes
• United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names
• United States Board on Geographic Names
• Geographic Names Information System
• Toponomy
• List of places
• Street sign theft
• List of city name changes in Russia and Soviet Union
• List of double placenames
• Africanization
• South African Geographical Names Council

References

• Branford, Becky (26 May 2005). "City names mark changing times" at BBC News. Accessed 26 November 2005.

External links

• Name Changes Since 1990: Countries, Cities, and More at Mapping.com