Geographical renaming

Geographical renaming is the act of changing 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 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.

There are many reasons to undertake a renaming, with political motivation being the primary cause, such as reverting to the original names of cities that were renamed to honour Stalin. (See de-Stalinization and history of the Soviet Union (1953-1985).) 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 name of the 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 stop having an unusual or embarrassing name
• As part of a sponsorship deal or publicity stunt

A change might see a completely different name being adopted or may simply be just a slightly different 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, and the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Bombay High Court in Mumbai, Republic of India.

Naming disputes

• "British Isles" is disliked in Ireland
• The Hyphen War of 1990 – Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia?
• Derry/Londonderry name dispute
• Indian renaming controversy
• Iran naming dispute starting in the 1980s
• Sea of Japan naming dispute
• Dispute over the name of the Republic of Macedonia
• Northern Ireland naming dispute
• Persian Gulf naming dispute starting in the 1960s

Significant name changes

The following list shows acts of geographical renaming that have had been of international importance or significance.

• Beijing – named Peiping from 1927 to 1949, during which time Nanking was the national capital. In English-speaking countries, Beijing was generally known as Peking before its name change, but following the Communist takeover and the pinyin transcription scheme was introduced, Beijing was adopted.
• Benin – formerly Dahomey
• Burkina Faso from Upper Volta in 1984
• Cape Canaveral – to Cape Kennedy on 27 November 1963 and back again on 9 October 1973 after the government of Florida passed a law to change it back
• Central African Republic – from Ubangi-Shari on independence in 1958 (Called Central African Empire from December 4, 1976 to September 20, 1979)
• Chemnitz in Saxony, Germany, was Karl-Marx-Stadt between 1953 and 1990.
• Chennai (4th largest city of India) – from Madras in October 1996 during the rule of DMK party led by K. Karunanidhi.
• Democratic Republic of the Congo – was Zaire between 1971 and 1997.
• Dhaka (capital of Bangladesh) – previously Dacca
• Djibouti – formerly French Somaliland, then Afars and Issas
• Ekaterinburg was known as Sverdlovsk under Soviet Union.
• Ethiopia – historically known as Abyssinia as well as Ethiopia
• Ghana – formerly the Gold Coast
• Ho Chi Minh City – formerly Saigon, changed in 1975 after the fall of South Vietnam
• Iran – known as Persia before 1979 (both names were used in the mid-20th century)
• Ireland (republic) – before 1937 the Irish Free State. Since 1949 commonly referred to by the official description Republic of Ireland, apart from in treaties, etc. State does not include all of the island of Ireland.
• Istanbul since 28 March, 1930 – formerly Byzantium (under Greek rule) then Constantinople (under Roman and Ottoman rule)
• Jordan – formerly Transjordan
• Kaliningrad from Königsberg in 1945
• Katowice in Silesia, Poland was Stalinogród between 1953 and 1956
• 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.
• Kiribati – known as the Gilbert Islands prior to independence in 1979
• Kolkata – from Calcutta in January 2001 by the Left Front government in order to be phonetically closer to the Bengali version
• Kollam – formerly Quilon.
• Mumbai – from Bombay in December 1995 by right wing Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena-BJP coalition government.
• Myanmar, in 1988 the military junta changed the name but Burma is still widely used in English (see explanation of the names of Burma/Myanmar)
• Namibia – formerly South-West Africa
• New York City was once New Amsterdam (see History of New York City)
• Nizhny Novgorod was Gorky during the Soviet Union.
• Oslo - known as Kristiania prior to 1925 (spelled Christiania before 1875) (in the Hagar the Horrible comic strip, Oslo is used to identify Hagar and his family as Norwegian Vikings)
• 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]
• Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic was renamed to Ciudad Trujillo in a drive of personality cult around the president Rafael Leónidas Trujillo that also affected Pico Trujillo and other Dominican features.
• St Petersburg – originally St Petersburg (in 1703), then Petrograd (in 1914), Leningrad (in 1924) and back to St Petersburg in 1991
• Sri Lanka from Ceylon in 1972
• Thailand – formerly Siam until 1949.
• Thiruvananthapuram – formerly Trivandrum.
• Tokyo – formerly Edo, until it became the capital of Japan in 1868
• Toronto – known as York at the time of the War of 1812
• Tuvalu – known as the Ellice Islands prior to independence in 1978
• Vanuatu – from New Hebrides on 30 July 1980 after gaining self-governance, independence and then full sovereignty.
• Volgograd – originally Tsaritsyn, Stalingrad between 1925 and 1961.
• Western Sahara – formerly Spanish Sahara
• 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; Numerous cities and towns in Zimbabwe were also changed in an attempt to eradicate symbols of British colonialism and white minority rule (such as Salisbury to Harare).

Changes resulting from splits and mergers

• Czechoslovakia separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia
• Yugoslavia ("Land of the South Slavs") was created by joining various regions (Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro) and then split again.
• Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined to become Tanzania
• Egypt and Syria were briefly joined as the United Arab Republic
• Various places split with compass directions, such as North and South Dakota, West Virginia and Virginia, North and South Yemen, North and South Korea, East and West Germany, et al., as well as the reunification of some of these places (Vietnam, Germany, Yemen, et al).

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 programme.
• 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 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. 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. In fact, the local high school is East Detroit High School.

See also

• Exonym and endonym
• List of city name changes
• United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names
• United States Board on Geographic Names
• Geographic Names Information System
• Placename etymology
• List of places
• Street sign theft
• List of city name changes in Russia and Soviet Union
• List of placenames containing the word "new"
• 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

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