This article lists times that items were renamed due to political motivations. Such renamings have generally occurred during conflicts; for example, World War I gave rise to anti-German sentiment among Allied nations, leading to disassociation with German names.
An early political cartoon lampooning the name change of hamburger meat during World War I
Managers at Sea World, a major Australian marine park, renamed their Fairy Penguins to "Little Penguin", saying "we just didn't want to upset the gay community. The new name is more politically correct" but also stated that "We didn't have any complaints about the name of the penguins." Spokespeople for several LGBT+ organisations expressed views that the change was unnecessary.[5]Note: Fairy is a derogatory term for an effeminate gay man in some Commonwealth countries.
However some organisations have also shifted to "Little Penguin" for apolitical reasons, a spokesman for Phillip Island Nature Park stated that their motivation to instead use "Little Penguin" was that it is closer to their scientific title.[5]
New Zealand: In 1998, while the French government was testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific, French loaves were renamed Kiwi loaves in a number of supermarkets and bakeries.
French Revolution: The Committee of Public Safety went so far as to banish all words associated with royalty. A major example of their work was taking Kings and Queens out of playing cards and replacing them with Committee members. It lasted less than a year. It is commonly believed that this was also the time when Aces earned their status as being both the highest card and the lowest card.[7]
World War I: Coffee with whipped cream, previously known as Café Viennois (Vienna coffee), was renamed Café Liégeois (Coffee from Liège) due to the state of war with Austria-Hungary. This appellation is still in use today, mainly for ice creams (chocolat liégeois and café liegeois).[citation needed]
During World War I, Saint Petersburg was renamed 'Petrograd', amounting effectively to a translation of the name from German to Russian.
At a meeting on November 16, 2016, with the prime ministers of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, Russia's prime minister Dmitry Medvedev suggested that Americano coffee should be renamed "Rusiano coffee". Also, in 2014, following Moscow's annexation of Crimea, several cafes on the peninsula changed their menus to read "Russiano" and "Crimean", in place of Americano coffee.[11]
Spain: After the triumph of Francisco Franco, filete imperial ("imperial beef") became a euphemism for filete ruso ("Russian beef"), "ensaladilla nacional" ("national salad") for "ensaladilla rusa" (Russian salad) and Caperucita Encarnada ("Little Red Riding Hood") for Caperucita Roja (which has the same meaning but loses its hypothetical connotations).[citation needed]
The German Shepherd was renamed the "Alsatian", and German biscuits were renamed Empire biscuits due to strong anti-German sentiment.
The members of the British royal house, a branch of the German House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, severed ties with their German cousins following several bombing raids on England by the first long-range bomber, the Gotha G.IV starting in March 1917. On July 17, 1917, King George V changed the family's name to the House of Windsor.
American Civil War: Before 1863, Belleville, Illinois was known as Bellville and named in honor of Tennessee politician John Bell. After the outbreak of the Civil War, the name was officially changed to Belleville to distance the city from Bell, who had defected to the Confederacy.[13]
War on Terror: During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, freedom fries was a short-lived political euphemism for French fries, used by some to express their disapproval of the French opposition to the invasion.[14] In response to the French government's opposition to the prospective invasion of Iraq in 2003, Republican Chairman on the Committee of House Administration Bob Ney renamed French fries "Freedom Fries" in three Congressional cafeterias and the change was originally supported and followed by some restaurants. Usage has since reverted to the original term.
^Leonidas Karakatsanis, Turkish-Greek Relations: Rapprochement, Civil Society and the Politics of Friendship, Routledge, 2014, ISBN0415730457, p. 111 and footnote 26: "The eradication of symbolic relations with the 'Turk' was another sign of this reactivation: the success of an initiative to abolish the word 'Turkish' in one of the most widely consumed drinks in Greece, i.e. 'Turkish coffee', is indicative. In the aftermath of the Turkish intervention in Cyprus, the Greek coffee company Bravo introduced a widespread advertising campaign titled 'We Call It Greek' (Emeis ton leme Elliniko), which succeeded in shifting the relatively neutral 'name' of a product, used in the vernacular for more than a century, into a reactivated symbol of identity. 'Turkish coffee' became 'Greek coffee' and the use of one name or the other became a source of dispute separating 'traitors' from 'patriots'."
^Mikes, George (1965). Eureka!: Rummaging in Greece. p. 29. Their chauvinism may sometimes take you a little aback. Now that they are quarrelling with the Turks over Cyprus, Turkish coffee has been renamed Greek coffee; ...
^Robert Browning, Medieval and Modern Greek, 1983. ISBN0-521-29978-0. p. 16
^Hallowell, Zechariah (1865). History of St. Clair County, Illinois: A Compendium of Its Villages, Townships and Cities and Their Nomenclature. Z. A. Hallowell. p. 131.
