http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PleaseSelectNewCityName



Why they changed it I can't say—

People just liked it better that way" The Four Lads, "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", , "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", re-popularized by They Might Be Giants on Flood "Even old New York was once New AmsterdamWhy they changed it I can't say—People just liked it better that way"

Due to a large number of political events, certain city names have become politically incorrect and have been changed. Naturally, not all the locals will be fond of it. Referring to a location by its old vs. its new name may be a way of declaring one's political allegiance. A Soviet-era joke has an older Russian filling out a form:

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Where were you born? St. Petersburg.

Where did you go to school? Petrograd.

Where do you live now? Leningrad.

And where would you like to live? St. Petersburg.

It's not always for political reasons though. For example, some Chinese place names have simply been changed due to a new method of transliterating their "real" names — neither "Peking" nor "Beijing" is an entirely accurate way of representing the Chinese word, due to language differences, but the latter is considerably closer than the former. Linguistic drift can also change names: The Roman province of Hispania became, over a thousand years later, the nation of Espania — Spain.

Either way, expect to see some of the old names pop up in Alternate History or Fantasy Counterpart Culture, as evidenced by Istanbul (Not Constantinople). If the new "name" is just a number, it's Airstrip One. If it's named for the ruler, it's Egopolis.

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Often a form of Meaningful Rename.

Examples

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Uses in Fiction

Anime and Manga

The main setting of Higurashi: When They Cry was renamed from Onigafuchi to Hinamizawa, removing the "oni" (demon) part of the name—a reference to the villagers' beliefs that they were part demon—in the process.

Aria does this to the planet Mars, which is said to have been renamed Aqua after being terraformed.

Comic Books

Astro City was originally called Romeyn Falls, but was renamed in 1947 to honor Golden Age hero the Astro-Naut, who'd stopped an alien invasion that devastated the city.

Seattle gets renamed Star City after it's taken over by an Ancient Conspiracy in the Green Arrow (Rebirth) storyline "Rise of Star City". Ollie makes a point of continuing to call it Seattle.

The Finder arc "Third World" has a city called only "Third World", because it's occupied by several different ethnic groups, each with their own traditional name for it, and none of them will allow any of the others' names to be officially selected.

Fan Works

A sidestory of Pokémon Reset Bloodlines starring young Samuel Oak and Agatha reveals that Pallet Town was originally named Blank Town, and was renamed after Pallet Oak, Samuel's grandfather, who was considered the greatest Pokémon Master of all time. Agatha snarks that with a name like Blank Town, people probably jumped at the chance to change the name.

Chasing Dragons: After Tyrosh is sacked by the Abolitionist Alliance and annexed by Braavos, the latter rename it Martyros. After Balon's Rebellion is crushed and the Iron Islands occupied by the mainland, the city of Lordsport is renamed Euronsport in honor of Euron's loyal service to Stannis and his death during the rebellion and made the headquarters of the Order of the Sea (The Order created to police the islands).



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Literature

Live-Action TV

In Brazilian telenovela Saramandaia (both the Seventies original and the 2013 remake), the ostensible dividing issue between two political factions is a proposal to change the town's name from "Bole-Bole" to "Saramandaia".

Starling City is renamed Star City (which was its name in the comics, although see above for why that's complicated these days) in season 4 of Arrow, in tribute to the believed-dead Ray Palmer.

The eponomous station from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was originally a Cardassian ore processing station called Terok Nor. It briefly returns to that name for the first six episodes of season six during the Dominion's occupation.

The Twilight Zone (1985): In "A Message from Charity", the village of Annes Town was renamed Anniston in the late 19th Century.

Tabletop Games

Traveller: The New Era gives us an example involving planets - the Reformation Coalition gave several of its planets new names relating to its philosophy of hope and rebirth, to make the point that the Imperium (the source of the former names) was gone and not coming back.

The capital of Karameikos, a nation from the Mystara D&D setting, was changed from Specularum to Mirros by royal decree. In-character, this was done because "Specularum" was a name imposed by the Thyatians and raised bad feelings among the Traladaran populace, whom King Stephan wanted to appease; out-of-character, it's because one of TSR's female employees pointed out that "Specularum" sounds unpleasantly like a gynecological implement. Side note: the speculum is a general name for any tool that holds a part of the body open, and there are several types, each less auspicious a name for your city than the last. The eye speculum, for instance...

This tends to happen to Martian city-states in Rocket Age when they are conquered or the previous rulers are overthrown. We currently have Emancipation, New Jerusalem, Neu Berlin and Nuovo Roma to name a few.

Battletech has a few, but the cake has to be taken by Duenkelwalderduenkelerfluessenschattenwelt. This planet in the Draconis Combine labored under that jawbreaker of a name for centuries before deciding to change the name to something simpler, namely, "Bob". However, they did this right at the beginning of the First Succession War, and the paperwork was lost in the Draconis Combine's bureaucracy amidst the maelstroms of the conflict. With that paperwork missing, requests for urgent supplies going to Bob went unheeded, as the planet didn't officially exist, at least as far as the interstellar government was concerned.

Video Games

Web Animation

Strong Bad says that one of the requirements for becoming an officially licensed unlicensed seller of cheap Strong Bad and The Cheat knock-off merchandise is that it has to be made in a country that's changed its name at least five times since Strong Bad was in seventh grade. This is spoken over a visual of a country getting its name crossed off and replaced five times (Gunkistan → East Paunch → Republic of Wad → Double G → West Paunch → Guttenberg).

''RWBY: On Remnant, the four Kingdoms all share the same name as their capital city. The Kingdom of Atlas was originally known as the Kingdom of Mantle, but after the Great War, when Atlas Academy was established, the city that quickly sprung up around said school grew to the point where the decision was made to move the capital there as well. It's implied that some of the people of Mantle are still holding a grudge over that as well.

Web Comics

The Order of the Stick: After almost a year of occupying Azure City, Redcloak renamed it "Gobbotopia" as part of a plan to create a stable monster state. The Western Continent's nation-states and cities are constantly changing names around once a year, as that's how long it takes the average tyrant to be overthrown and replaced by another tyrant.

This xkcd strip starts with a straight example regarding disputed Israel/Palestine territories, then parodies it with Texas and Oklahoma.

Western Animation

Used in Avatar: The Last Airbender. The city of Omashu was originally named after its founders; the secret lovers Oma and Shu, who united their warring villages to create the city. However, when it gets taken over by the Fire Nation it is renamed as "The City of New Ozai".

An episode of King of the Hill has Peggy do some digging into Arlen's history and discover, to her horror, that it used to be named Harlotown note Yes, an entire city of brothels; somewhere, Frank Miller is looking on and smiling

Futurama: It is revealed that during the 23rd century the Star Trek fandom became a religion so powerful that Germany was briefly renamed "Nazi-Planet Episode Land". And of course, after one of the (apparently several) times that New York was destroyed and rebuilt over the past thousand years it was renamed New New York.

The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror II" episode includes a parody of one of the stories in Twilight Zone: The Movie in which Bart has the world at his command because he can read minds and manipulate reality. Edna Krabappel : Well, class, the history of our country has been changed again, to correspond with Bart's answers on yesterday's test. America was now discovered in 1942 by... : Well, class, the history of our country has been changed again, to correspond with Bart's answers on yesterday's test. America was now discovered in 1942 by... Some Guy . And our country isn't called America any more. It's Bonerland. In "Simpson Safari," in a matter of seconds as the family is about to land in Tanzania (see below), the country is renamed "New Zanzibar" and then "Pepsi Presents New Zanzibar."



Appearances in Real Life

In general, colonies tend to get rid of their master's name on independence (for reasons that have as much to do with accuracy as with pride).

Africa

Southern Africa South Africa : There is an ongoing controversial movement to change Pretoria's name to Tshwane. Pretoria is presently the name of the primary city of the municipality of Tshwane. Some politicians insist on renaming the city, but in a country with 11 official languages (seriously), each with their own name for the city, what would they call it? This is not the only city to experience a theoretical name change. Ask someone where 'Bela-bela' is and you'll get a blank look at best, but Warmbad is fairly well known. Many other examples exist in South Africa. In Durban, the city management embarked on a politically driven campaign to rename all of the streets in the city. Which all of the citizens promptly ignored. At present the renamed streets have signposts displaying both the new and the old names, and on some the new names have been spray painted over or removed.

: South-West Africa used to be German before World War One, then it was taken over by South Africa for about 70 years. Now it's called Namibia .

. Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia became Harare in Zimbabwe.

Northern Rhodesia became Zambia, though the major city was already Lusaka.

Bechuanaland became Botswana . In The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency TV adaptation Grace references this when complaining the office does not have a computer .

. In The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency TV adaptation . In 2018, Swaziland formally adopted the name eSwatini, marking the 50th anniversary of the country's independence. The name eSwatini was already in use, but now it is official. Central Africa Belgian Congo became the Republic of the Congo after gaining independence, but the name was changed to Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1964, probably because its neighbouring country, the former French Congo also chose the name "Republic of the Congo". The country was then renamed to Zaire between 1965 and 1997 but reverted to "Democratic Republic of the Congo" in 1998. The Republic of the Congo itself was the People's Republic of the Congo 1970-1992.

Ubangi-Shari => Central African Republic => Central African Empire => Central African Republic Western Africa Dahomey => Benin . Confusingly, not the successor to the historical Benin Empire. It was named after the Bight of Benin, which it borders, which was in turn named after the empire. The name was chosen as a compromise between the Dahomey, Atakora, and Burgu ethnic groups which make up the nation. Oddly enough, back when the southeastern regions of Nigeria seceded as Biafra, they established a puppet state out of Nigeria's Mid-Western Region, which is where the Benin Empire actually was, called the Republic of Benin. note Back then, the modern-day Benin was known as Dahomey, eliminating the confusion.

. Confusingly, not the successor to the historical Benin Empire. It was named after the Bight of Benin, which it borders, which was in turn named after the empire. The name was chosen as a compromise between the Dahomey, Atakora, and Burgu ethnic groups which make up the nation. Gold Coast => Ghana . Also named after a historical kingdom which was actually somewhere else (its furthest southern reach was a few kilometers north of current Ghana's northern border; any attempt to connect to the historical entity via ethnicity is also spurious, since very few of historical Ghana's dominant Soninke people live in modern Ghana, which is dominated by the unrelated Ashanti, Fanti, Akan, Guan, and Ewe peoples.

. Also named after a historical kingdom which was actually somewhere else (its furthest southern reach was a few kilometers north of current Ghana's northern border; any attempt to connect to the historical entity via ethnicity is also spurious, since very few of historical Ghana's dominant Soninke people live in modern Ghana, which is dominated by the unrelated Ashanti, Fanti, Akan, Guan, and Ewe peoples. Ivory Coast => Côte d'Ivoire (It means the same thing but has become the preferred form in English)

Upper Volta => Burkina Faso

Spanish Sahara => Western Sahara

Spanish Guinea => Equatorial Guinea (though it bore its current name during the last few years of Spanish rule in the 1960s).

Portuguese Guinea => Guinea-Bissau

Averted with Angola and Mozambique, both named after indigenous leaders (Queen Ngola Nzinga of the Kimgdom of the Congo and Moza Alambique of Mozambique Island, respectively). The names "Portuguese West Africa" (Angola) and "Portuguese East Africa" (Mozambique) were both English-language exonyms unknown to the average Portuguese or Angolan/Mozambican, then or now.

In Angola: Fort Huambo -> Nova Lisboa -> Huambo Moçâmedes (after a Baron) -> Namibe (after the desert, which also names Namibia) -> Moçâmedes (although here the colonial name was always popular) Vila Salazar (after the Portuguese dictator) -> N'dalatando São Salvador do Congo -> M'Banza Kongo

Eastern Africa Abyssinia => Ethiopia

Tanganyika and Zanzibar => Tanzania (although that one was a portmanteau of two former colonies that united into one independent country)

British East Africa got the name Kenya as far back as 1920, decades before independence; that was, however, also confusion-related, as the British had just taken Tanganyika—immediately to the south—from the Germans, and "British East Africa" could now refer to that as well, so the Brits decided to take the opportunity to make the old East Africa protectorate a Crown Colony called Kenya. Under British control, the country's name was pronounced "Keen-ya", and you will still find older Brits who say it this way. However, the locals have always called it "Ken-ya" and it's been generally called this internationally since gaining independence.

as far back as 1920, decades before independence; that was, however, also confusion-related, as the British had just taken Tanganyika—immediately to the south—from the Germans, and "British East Africa" could now refer to that as well, so the Brits decided to take the opportunity to make the old East Africa protectorate a Crown Colony called Kenya. Under British control, the country's name was pronounced "Keen-ya", and you will still find older Brits who say it this way. However, the locals have always called it "Ken-ya" and it's been generally called this internationally since gaining independence. After the independence, many major cities of Madagascar changed their names to Malagasy-sounding ones. There were several distinct reasons though: The city already had a Malagasy name but the French colonists translated it. Examples: Antananarivo (Tananarive), Mahajanga (Majunga) and Toliary (Tuléar) The city already had a Malagasy name but the French colonists created another one from scratch. Example: Toamasina (Tamatave) The city was founded by Europeans but gained a Malagasy name with time. Examples: Antseranana (Diego-Suarez), Tolanaro (Fort-Dauphin) and the small city of Mahavelona (Hopeful Point, then frenchified as Foulpointe) Aversions: the French administration never bothered to translate or change the names of the major cities of Fianarantsoa and Antsirabe, and on the other side the main city on the island of Nosy Be is still Hell-Ville as of now despite a Malagasy name (Andoany) existing.

changed their names to Malagasy-sounding ones. There were several distinct reasons though: Mozambique: Delagoa Bay -> Lourenço Marques (after a Discoveries-era navigator) -> Maputo (after the river which flows west of the city; originally the Frelimo government thought of Can Phum, after a local pre-colonial chief, but never went through with it) Vila Salazar (after the Portuguese dictator) -> Matola (after the local Matsolo people)

Northern Africa Libya: The capital, Tripoli, was founded as the Phoenician city of Oea. The Phoenicians also founded two other cities nearby Tripoli and together with Oea they were collectively called "three cities" (tripolis) by the Greeks. Over time, the name was appropriated to refer exclusively to Oea. Benghazi was originally known as "Euesperides/Hesperides" when it was first founded by the Greeks. In the 3rd century BCE, it was changed to "Berenice", honoring the name of a local princess who was given in marriage to king Ptolemy III. It got its present name after it became a major settlement again during the Ottoman period. Bayda was originally "Balagrae" under the Greeks, then "Sidi Rafaa" during the early Islamic period before it finally settled on the current name after the establishment of an influential Sufi order.



Australia / Oceania

Bendigo in Victoria, Australia was officially named Sandhurst in the 19th century. However, all attempts to use "Sandhurst" failed and the government eventually gave up and let it be known as Bendigo.

New Hebrides => Vanuatu

Not a city, but the island/state Tasmania in Australia, was named after the first European to see it, Dutchman Abel Tasman. However, Tasman originally named it Anthony van Diemen's Land after his patron and when it was controlled by the British it was shortened to Van Diemen's Land. 200 years after Tasman named it, it was renamed Tasmania after him.

German-named places in Australia had their names changed during the war to avoid being associated with 'the enemy'. Some changed back (like Hahndorf, SA, which temporarily became Ambleside), others didn't (Blumburg became Birdwood, SA) Bismarck became Collinsvale, TAS. The ultimate example: Germanton in New South Wales was renamed Holbrook after Victoria Cross-winning British submarine captain Norman Douglas Holbrook. Despite being 300 kilometres from the nearest coast and having nothing to do with the submariner specifically or nautical things in general. The town is now famous for having the hull of the Cold War era submarine HMAS Otway situated in a park on the main highway.

Melbourne was originally called Bearbrass, for some reason. Before that, it was Batmania, after its founder John Batman.

There were a number of places and landmarks given back their Aboriginal names in the 1970s and 1980s, most notably Uluru, formerly Ayers Rock.

There's apparently a debate going around in New Zealand about whether to rename Wanganui to Whanganui. Usually this would change the pronunciation in Māori, excepting that the local iwi have their 'wha' the same as 'wa' unlike the rest of Māoridom. Resolved by using both. Hilariously, this means that the iwi gets the spelling they want at the cost of everyone who doesn't speak the local dialect of Maori now mispronouncing it. For reference, other Te Reo Maori dialects pronounce "wh" as an "f" sound. The correct pronunciation is along the lines of "fa-na-nui" Averted with Mount Egmont/Mount Taranaki - both names are used interchangeably with no one batting an eyelid.

Similar to the Uluru example above, part of many Treaty of Waitangi settlements with Maori iwi in New Zealand involve giving various landmarks an official Māori name in addition to the official English one. One of the most famous examples is Mount Cook, the nation's highest mountain, which is now officially Aoraki/Mount Cook.

New Zealand's two main islands went through various names before they became known as the North Island and South Island in the early 20th century. In 2009, the Geographic Board discovered that they weren't even their official names - they had none. They've now been gazetted with dual English and Maori names: North Island / Te Ika-a-Māui and South Island / Te Waipounamu.

In Hawaii, Waimea is the name of two towns, one on Kauaʻi, and one on the Big Island. Kamuela is an alternative name (used by the U.S. Postal Service) for the Big Island town to distinguish between the two.

East Timor: Vila Salazar (after the Portuguese dictator) -> Baucau

Americas

Hull/Gatineau, Quebec. As with Pretoria/Tshwane, the old central city is still officially Hull, the metropolitan region (or at least that part of it on the Quebec side of the river) once commonly called "Hull", is officially Gatineau.

A goodly raft of the towns in Nunavut and in Nunavik (northern Quebec), formerly with English or French names, have had their names changed (or changed back) to Inuktitut names. For example, what used to be Frobisher Bay is now Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. (The change was made a number of years before the creation of Nunavut.) Which amusingly sometimes resulted in the English/French name sounding more native than the translation of the actual native name. An example was the village now known as Kuujjuarapik. It was previously known as "Great Whale River", which sounds very epically native, before the Inuktitut name became official. The word kuujjuarapik means "small big river".

Nieuw Amsterdam was founded in 1609 on the banks of the Hudson river, in the island of Mannahatta. Later, when the Second Anglo-Dutch War was settled in 1674 by the Treaty of Westminster, the Duke of York from England gained control of New Amsterdam and renamed it New York City; Mannahatta was anglicized as Manhattan. Other name changed include Harlem (Haarlem), Flushing (Vlissingen), Brooklyn (Breukelen) and Stuyvesant Town (after the last governor of Nieuw Nederland, Peter Stuyvesant). Before the Dutch colonized it, the area was known as New Angoulême to Italian explorers.

In a rare case of changing who a place is named after, but not the actual name of the place, the name of the county in which Seattle, Washington State sits in was changed in 2005 from King County (named after William Rufus King, vice president of the United States at the time of the county's inception), to...um...King County (named after Martin Luther King Jr., who visited Seattle in 1961). This was probably because William Rufus King's most notable political legacy before his 45-day vice presidency was defending slavery in the Senate. Seattle itself was originally named New York-Alki ("New York Someday," in Chinook Jargon)

Kitchener, Ontario received a new name in 1916 (the middle of World War One), when enough people complained about a Canadian city named "Berlin". Three years later, what is now Marne, Michigan (outside of Grand Rapids) went through exactly the same thing—everything around there is still called "Berlin (raceway, fairgrounds, etc.)", though. Kitchener was known as (New) Berlin since German American loyalists settled there after the revolution, it wasn't later German immigrants who gave it the name, which was the reasoning for changing it. Kitchener was the head of the British Empire's military at the time of the First World War. Swastika was named way before WWII and the name had a different meaning than the symbol, which was also originally a good luck symbol. Parodied with a CBC Sitcom titled The Good Germany, about the town council of the fictional town of Germany, ON. The title is referenced in a World War II-era banner in the council's meeting room.

Toronto, Ontario was named York. Note that the original name for the area was Toronto and it was renamed to Toronto (a native name) when New York was growing and becoming larger, i.e. they did not want to be a 'second York' in North America. Made funnier ever since Peter Ustinov called the city "New York run by the Swiss." One section of Toronto is still known as "North York"; other sections were formerly known as York and East York before merging with the city. Quite a lot around the city is still named York something-or-other, despite the name change being more than a century ago.

There used to be an area in Texas called "Dead Nigger Creek," which was eventually changed to the ever-so-slightly less offensive "Dead Negro Draw." Similarly, the former "Nigger Bill Canyon" in Utah is now "Negro Bill Canyon". This still embarrasses some local whites, who want as of late 2012 to use the The Namesake's last name instead, making it Grandstaff Canyon, but the NAACP likes the current name just fine, and is again working to keep it. As of 2015, Quebec is starting to reconsider about a dozen place names with N-word variants in French and English .

During the 1890s, the U.S. Postal Service began standardizing spellings by dropping the "h" from town names ending in -burgh (as well as shortening -borough to -boro); this policy relented in The '50s and many communities have claimed their "h" back. It can take decades for all the signs to change, however. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania refused to let go of its "H". Most other Pittsburghs, however, were OK with letting it go, including Pittsburg, Kansas (which is probably why most people realize Pittsburg State University is not in Pennsylvania). Pittsburg, California was forced to drop the "h" and is actually a double example of this trope; originally it was named "New-York-Of-The-Pacific". See also: Alburgh, Vermont

Colonies tend to get rid of their master's name on independence (for reasons that have about as much to do with accuracy as with pride). British Honduras => Belize British Guiana => Guyana Dutch Guiana => Suriname Averted by French Guiana - the official name is "Guyane" but the territory remains part of France. note Guyane has since 1946 been considered not a colony but an "overseas department" of France, meaning that it gets full representation in the French and Europe parliaments; despite being in South America, it's legally part of Europe since it's part of France.

When Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario merged, they changed their name. Everyone just called the area "The Lakehead" anyway, so of course they named it "Thunder Bay". You see, there was a vote, and both "Lakehead" and "The Lakehead" were on the ballot next to Thunder Bay. Oops. More of the same when the city of Galt merged with Preston and Hespeler - resulting in the city of Cambridge, Ontario. Also a bit of a subversion; an early name for the town of Preston was Cambridge Mills.

In Ontario, the colonial settlements of York, Bytown, Johnstown and Scott's Mills are the thriving cities of Toronto, Ottawa, Cornwall and Peterborough, respectively. Out West, the settlements of Fort Brisebois, Pile O'Bones, and Fort Camosun are the thriving cities of Calgary, Regina, and Victoria. The change from Fort Brisebois to Calgary has a somewhat shameful story behind it; Mr Brisebois' commanding officer didn't like that he had taken a Metis woman as a common-law wife. And Granville is now Vancouver. And Ville-Marie is now Montreal, and Fort Garry is now Winnipeg (although in both cases there are districts of the city in question with those names).

There is a city named Buffalo, Texas. When the Dallas Cowboys played the (New York-based) Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl, the town changed its name to Blue Star for a week to match the Cowboys' logo. When the same cities met for the NHL championship a few years later, they changed the name to Green Star. There is also a Pittsburg, Texas, which temporarily changed its name to "Cowboys" the last time Dallas and Pittsburgh met in the Super Bowl.

Orange County, Florida (after which Orange County, California was named, believe it or not), was originally named Mosquito County. It was renamed Orange County when it became the center of the state's citrus industry. And really, who wants to be named after a disease-carrying vermin?

In the late 70s, a street in Orange County, Florida, North Nowell Street, was once renamed Lamar Street, for then County Commissioner (and now Florida State's Attorney) Lawson Lamar, for no better reason than Lamar wanted a street named after him. So unpopular was this switch with the locals that they kept knocking over the street signs (in one case, a horde of teenagers descended upon every street sign in the neighborhood with sledgehammers). After replacing the sign for the thirtieth time, the county got the message and restored the street's original name. Lawson Lamar was not amused. Lamar tried the same trick with a County Park in Orange county a couple of years later, with similar results. Lawson Lamar is generally seen to be a Jerkass by the people of Orange County, Florida.

Paterson, New Jersey was once a key global producer of silk. At its height it was a major artistic and cultural center; its most famous son, William Carlos Williams, wrote his poetry (including his most celebrated work, a poetic portrait of the city, titled Paterson) while practicing pediatrics at the nearby Passaic General Hospital. Two of its largest suburbs incorporated under the names East Paterson and West Paterson in order to identify themselves with Paterson's reputation. Fast forward 90 years: Paterson no longer produces silk, the factories are all broken glass and crumbling facades, and the entire place is considered, fairly or unfairly, a crime-ridden ghetto. Controversially, East & West Paterson became Elmwood Park and Woodland Park to distance themselves from their former namesake. A local joke is that Paterson will rename itself "Park" in revenge.

North Beach in Burlington, Vermont was renamed "Bernie Sanders Beach" by the city council for about a day and a half before Sanders himself asked that it not be renamed for him.

Many places in Texas use the last names of prominent historical figures, with Houston, Austin and Dallas being the big three examples. After the Civil War, because many of these people were officials or soldiers under the Confederate government, there was pressure from the North to change the namesakes and the fact that some of the place names were after people who sided with the Union and fought against Texas regiments. So while some counties and cities have the same names to reduce confusion as much as possible, their historical meaning can be confused at best and a bitter subject for arguments involving both slavery and a corrupt occupation government at worst. For example, Walker County can claim at least three different namesakes, besides the one we're all familiar with.

Many Chicago neighborhoods started out as suburbs, and got absorbed. Most of the street names were retained in the process. At the time this happened to Bucktown in the 1800s, it was a German enclave, so the streets had German names: Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Rhine, and so on. Then, World War I happened. Most would (eventually) get changed to the names of English authors.

The settlement of Frenchtown, Michigan Territory, was incorporated as the Village of Monroe, and the newly-formed surrounding county named Monroe County, following President James Monroe's visit to the territory in 1817. The Frenchtown name remains an important part of the region, however, due to the Battle of Frenchtown in the War of 1812, and the township north of the present City of Monroe is named Frenchtown.

Also in Michigan: in 1829, Bucklin Township split in half to become Nankin (west) and Pekin (east) Townships. Nankin further split into Livonia (north) and Nankin (south) Townships, while Pekin was split into Redford (north) and Dearborn (south) Townships. Livonia incorporated as a city in 1950, while Redford saw most of its area annexed by Detroit in the 1920s. Changing borders and mergers resulted in the present-day City of Dearborn being made up of parts of Bucklin/Redford/Dearborn/Bucklin/Dearborn Township, the Village of Dearbornville, parts of Springwells/Greenfield Township (the ones that didn't become Southwest Detroit), and the Village of Springwells/Fordson, while parts of Dearborn Township were annexed by Detroit, another part by Inkster, and the remainder of the township that didn't join the City of Dearborn becoming Dearborn Heights. Nankin split off the cities of Wayne, Garden City, and the west half of Inkster, and still had a burgeoning population of 70,000 (the most populous township in the world at the time) before incorporating as the City of Westland in 1966... all so they could keep Livonia from annexing the northern half of Nankin, which contained the newly-opened Westland Mall. Yes, that's right, the city named itself after its mall. The Nankin name lives on, though, with place names within the city.

Another Michigan example: in 1837, two brothers settled on the south bank of the Grand River a little downstream of its confluence with the Red Cedar, and called it "Biddle City". They then went back to their home area in Upstate New York, where they sold some of their old neighbors on the settlement by convincing them that it was a real town, with a church and post office and everything. When a surprising number of these New Yorkers showed up and found nothing of the kind, they still stuck it out and named their little settlement "Lansing" after their New York home; the township in which Lansing was situated became known as Lansing Township. A few years later, the state government decided that Lansing Township was a good place to move—scared by the possibility of British attack on Detroit, which was (and is) right across from Canada—and began preparations to move to a new settlement nearby, which was called the "Town of Michigan". However, as Lansing and Michigan grew closer together, the former absorbed the latter, and thus by the mid-1850s they were treated as one unit. In 1859, the City of Lansing was finally incorporated, picking a permanent name for the area that had been capital for nearly ten years.

Atlanta, Georgia started off as Terminus and then became Marthasville before becoming Atlanta.

Sort of happened to Guadalajara, Mexico, which was founded four times: the first became a small town called Nochistlán, the second became a neighborhood called Tonalá, the third became another small town called Tlacopán, and the fourth became Guadalajara itself. (And for the record, it's named after the small 80,000-people city of Guadalajara, Spain, and Guadalajara, Mexico is home to almost 5,000,000 people).

Clark, Texas, became DISH, Texas, because the DISH Network offered the inhabitants free satellite TV for 10 years.

In the same vein, the town of Halfway, Oregon temporarily renamed itself "Half.Com" , as a marketing stunt for a website of that name, at the height of the dot-com boom. All parties involved seem to have quietly let the whole affair be forgotten.

The town of Hot Springs, New Mexico, was renamed "Truth or Consequences" after the quiz show, because the show's host promised to air the show out of the first city to do this. It is commonly referred to as "T or C" to save some effort.

The city of Topeka, Kansas changed its name to Google, Kansas for the month of March 2010, to try and motivate Google to bring its fiber-optic network experiment to the city. This was not a legal name change, but rather simply a marketing one, as the city's lawyers advised against making the name change legal. In return, Google changed their name to Topeka for April Fools' Day. Admittedly, Topeka has a history of this - on the day Pokemon debuted in the US, it changed its name to Topikachu. Two decades later, Topeka changed its name to Topikachu again to celebrate the release of Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!.

Averted in the case of the capital of North Dakota, which remained Bismarck throughout two wars with Germany. Also played completely straight with the capital of North Dakota; it was originally named Edwinton and changed to Bismarck in 1873 to appeal to a new wave of German immigrants.

St. Paul, Minnesota was originally called Pig's Eye by locals after the tavern of the same name.

In 1874, Rancho San Pascual, California changed its name to Indiana Colony... or possibly Orange Grove. There was a post office for each name, and mail sent to either would arrive in the same place, not to mention the neighboring town of Lake Vineyard. Soon, the city became sufficiently large as to need a single name, so they started using a new one: Pasadena.

The towns of Westminster and Artesia, California are never referred to by their actual names; rather they are "Little Saigon" and "Little India" respectively. There are actual government documents that recognize these names, but the municipalities retain their old titles. There are lots of these kinds of Official Name v. Colloquial Name situations in Southern California. In another example, the towns of Canyon Country, Newhall, Saugus and Valencia incorporated together in 1987 as the city of Santa Clarita, but residents and businesses still use the old names. This is an exaggeration, unfortunately. Plenty, if not most, people in southern California call Artesia and Westminster by their actual names and the "Little Saigon" or "Little India" sobriquets are by no means the dominant names.

The area that would become San Diego was first named "San Miguel" by Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo when he landed there in 1542. When Sebastián Vizcaíno landed there sixty years later in 1602, unaware that the land had already been named and claimed for the Spanish Empire, he named it "San Diego" after his flagship, and the name stuck.

In Oregon, Dead Indian Road was renamed Dead Indian Memorial Road.

The Oregon state government has also mandated that all geographical names (roads, streams, mountains, etc.) within the state that include the word "squaw" be renamed.

Speaking of Oregon, "Oregon" was originally one of two names for a stretch of land between the Pacific Ocean and the Continental Divide that was the subject of a border dispute between the U.S. and the British from the 1830s to 1846, extending from the northern border of California at the 42nd parallel north to the southern border of Russian Alaska a little bit north of the 54th parallel north. The issue was that the agreed border between the U.S. and British Canada (the 49th parallel north) only went as far as the Rocky Mountains, and so the border west of the mountains remained a point of contention. In general, the Americans called the area "Oregon," while the British called the area the "Columbia District" (after the Columbia River). When the U.S. and Britain agreed in 1846 to resolve the territorial dispute by extending the border east of the Rockies west to the Pacific (except for Vancouver Island, which was to be entirely British), the British kept the "Columbia" name for their half (which later joined Canada as, obviously, "British Columbia"), and the US kept the "Oregon" name. When the Americans split their part in half again, the southern part kept the name "Oregon", and the northern part was planned to be named "Columbia", until a rather last-minute change named it "Washington" instead...out of a desire to avoid confusion with the District of Columbia. Clearly, someone Didn't Think This Through. Oregon and Washington are still divided by the Columbia River, as a result.

Similarly to the Oregon example above, Squaw Peak in Arizona was renamed Piestewa Peak, in honor of Army Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa, the first known Native American woman to die in combat in the U.S. military, and first female soldier to be killed in action in the 2003 Iraq War.

The city of Longmont, Colorado once had a street named Chivington Drive, named for the hero of the battle of La Glorieta Pass (1862) in the Civil War. Unfortunately, Col. John Chivington also happened to be the man responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864; the name was changed to Sunrise Drive in 2004.

The city of Auburn, Washington was originally incorporated in 1891 under the name Slaughter. The community had been known by that name since 1884, named after Lieutenant William Slaughter, who was killed in a skirmish in 1855 while leading a military unit in the area. The town name was changed by petition to the legislature in 1893, due to its negative connotations. Apparently train passengers did not like hearing that the next stop would be at Slaughter House (the largest local hotel at the time). The origins of the new name are disputed. A fact made more amusing when you consider that the Green River runs through town, which Gary Ridgway (who lived variously between Auburn and the city of Kent on the river's other bank) made famous.

The town of New Berlin, Wisconsin didn't change its name due to Anti-German sentiment from the two world wars, but they did change how it was pronounced. Instead of calling it New Ber-LIN, with the accent on the last syllable, the emphasis was shifted to the middle, resulting in New BER-lin. Saying it the "correct" German way to a local will usually get you asked where you're from. Moscow, Idaho, is MAHS-Coh, not -Cow like its Russian namesake—very probably since its founding, not a change. See also Paris, Texas, unlikely to be pronounced Pah-REE, and Versailles, Kentucky, pronouced "Ver-SALES" by the locals.

San Angelo, Texas, was originally named Santa Ángela in honor of the founder's wife. A few years later it became San Angela, only because that was easier to say. In 1883, the US Postal Service pointed out the name was grammatically incorrect and insisted on the present name as a condition for opening a post office there. However ... the proper masculine form of said name in Spanish is "Ángel" - "Angelo" is Italian.

Three cities and towns within Emanuel County, Georgia were renamed at various points in time: The county seat, Swainsboro, was renamed Paris upon its incorporation in 1854; however, the city reverted back to its original name 3 years later. The town of Twin City is so named because it is a consolidation of two smaller communities: Graymont and Summit. The town of Stillmore allegedly got its name due to its residents having a sense of humor. The town was originally named Kea's Mill; however, the U.S. Postal Service did not approve of the name and sent a memo with suggested town names. The memo advised them that if they did not like any of the names on the list, "still more" could be sent.

A guy named Thomas Bicknell offered to donate a free library with 1,000 books to any town that would rename itself after him. In 1914, two small Utah towns expressed interest. He decided to give each town 500 books. Thurber became Bicknell and Grayson became Blanding (Bicknell's wife's maiden name). Speaking of Utah, another "cities merge and select an entirely new name" incident: the Salt Lake City suburbs of Granger, Hunter, Chesterfield and Redwood joined together and incorporated in 1980, but decided to adopt the vague and slightly awkward name West Valley City. It's now Utah's second-largest city. Granger and Hunter still survive as Artifact Names, even for institutions built after the merger.

The pueblo (village) that would become the city of San Francisco was originally named Yerba Buena, after a local medicinal plant. When the United States took it over in 1846, it was renamed after the nearby (and much better known) Mission San Francisco de Asis (Mission of St. Francis of Assisi).

Brazil has a lot of this, most of them are new grammar change (Corytiba to Curitiba) or to keep the name shorter (São Paulo de Piratininga to simply São Paulo)

Speaking of Brazil, Florianópolis has a long story about name change. It was founded as "Ilha de Santa Catarina" and turned to "Nossa Senhora do Desterro" or only Desterro. In 1894 the city name was changed as an homage to the current president Floriano Peixoto. Problem is he wasn't very popular in Desterro, you can imagine how people react to it. But nowadays people just casually say "Floripa" because Florianóplis is too long.

Winston and Salem were once two separate cities in North Carolina. Salem came first, founded by the Moravian Church in 1753. Not wishing to be the seat of Forsyth County due to their religious isolationism at the time, the church sold land to the county to found Winston in 1849. All was well, until R. J. Reynolds and Pleasent Hanes' tobacco factories note Hanes later sold his tobacco business to Reynolds and began his far more famous second career in textiles. took off and made the city rich, causing it to grow rapidly and threaten to swallow up the more modest Salem. Salem protested that they were there first, beginning a contentious relationship between the two cities as to which was more important. The post office helped put an end to the issue by constantly referring to the area as "Winston-Salem" and naming the main post office as such in 1899. By 1913, both cities realized they were pretty much stuck with each other, and they formally became the single entity of Winston-Salem.

took off and made the city rich, causing it to grow rapidly and threaten to swallow up the more modest Salem. Salem protested that they were there first, beginning a contentious relationship between the two cities as to which was more important. The post office helped put an end to the issue by constantly referring to the area as "Winston-Salem" and naming the main post office as such in 1899. By 1913, both cities realized they were pretty much stuck with each other, and they formally became the single entity of Winston-Salem. The zinc mining town of Palmerton, Pennsylvania was known by the decidedly less normal name of Horse Head for some years after its foundation, after Horse Head Industries, the mining company that mined the aforementioned zinc. Allegedly, owner John Palmer didn't like the idea of the town being named after himself. After he died, "Palmerton", long an unofficial name, became the official one anyway.

Eastern Europe

Western Europe

United Kingdom In England most cities that weren't created during the Industrial Revolution have a string of names from successive waves of invaders. York was originally the Roman city of Eboracum, but when the Anglo-Saxons created the Kingdom of Northumbria they called it Eoforwic. Then the Vikings invaded and Eoforwic got Scandinavianised into Jórvik, and finally mutated into York around the 13th century.

In Wales, all places are given names in both English and Welsh. Since Wales has been invaded about as often as England, usually by the same people, names in both languages are often a weird mishmash of translations, transliterations, and renamings, and which is more accurate or original can be hard to tell. For example, Cardiff (the capital) appears to be an obvious corrupted transliteration of Caerdydd, meaning Castle of the Day. However, Caerdydd is itself a corruption (probably driven by people who thought Castle of the Day was a cool name) of the earlier Caerdyf (itself derived from an earlier Celtic name meaning "Castle on the Taff", but not technically meaning anything in Welsh), which would actually be closer to the modern English pronunciation. Other places have entirely disconnected names. Swansea was originally established as a Viking trading post, and is most likely named after the Norse king Sweyn Forkbeard (other etymologies are argued, but all come from Old Norse). The Welsh name, Abertawe, simply means "Mouth of the River Tawe". Both names have been used concurrently for about as long as the city has existed.

Similarly to Ireland, many place names in Scotland are Anglifications of Gaelic names such as Inbhir Nis (Inverness, "Mouth of the Ness") Obar Dheathain (Aberdeen, "Mouth of Two Rivers") and Dùn Dèagh (Dundee, "Fort of the Tay"). Edinburgh, contrary to popular belief, is not originally a Germanic or Gaelic toponym - being firstly the Brythonic "Din Eidyn" (Fort of Eidyn), which was transliterated as the Gaelic "Dùn Èideann" and only later became known by the Anglo-Saxon name "Edinburgh".

This also applies to streets. One particular example from Havering, a borough of London - a street had its name changed after the councillor it was named after was convicted for paedophilia. Penny Lane in Liverpool was named after a 18th-century slave trader of that name, not the coin. The fact that the area was sung about by The Beatles is likely the only thing causing the name to be kept. There is only one Anita Street in Britain. It's in Manchester. When it was first built in the 19th century, it was called Sanitary Street, as the first street in the city where every house was equipped with an indoor flush toilet. The residents didn't like the advertising inherent in the original name, and petitioned for it to be changed. Streets at the western end of Strand in London were named by the 18th-century landowner who built them so as to spell out his full name and title: George Villiers Duke of Buckingham (George Street now lies underneath Charing Cross Station). Westminster City Council, having no sense of whimsy, renamed Of Alley to York Place sometime in the 1960s.

Ireland Most place names in Ireland are anglicisations of the original Irish names (e.g. Dublin = Dubh Linn or 'Black Pool'). note Oddly, for more or less the same reason as Blackpool in Lancashire, just across the Irish Sea—a local body of water was discoloured by a nearby bog. Although still referred to by their English names, towns and villages today have signs at the entrances that give both the Irish and English placenames.

Although still referred to by their English names, towns and villages today have signs at the entrances that give both the Irish and English placenames. Around the time of the formation of the Irish Free State, Kingstown and Queenstown were renamed Dún Laoghaire and Cobh. King's County and Queen's County were renamed County Offaly and County Laoghis (pronounced "leash" and later shortened to "County Laois"). What is now Dún Laoghaire had actually already been anglicised to 'Dunleary' when its name was changed to 'Kingstown' in 1821.

Similarly, Philipstown became Daingean, Maryborough to Portlaoise. Other placenames only partially caught on, meaning that either name is used — Bagenalstown/Muine Bheag, Charleville/Ráth Luirc. And no-one beyond cartographers and government offices call Newbridge "Droichead Nua."

This can lead to some somewhat strange circumstances where the English name is an anglicisation of an Irish one—but the Irish name is something completely different (e.g. the aforementioned Dublin—its Irish name is Baile Átha Cliath, meaning "Town of the Hurdled Ford" on account of an old fording place on the Liffey near what is now Father Matthew Bridge).

Ireland is one of the few countries in Europe to have captions on the license plates. This was done because when the current numbering system was introduced, it included a one or two-letter county code, and people complained because these were abbreviations of the English county names. note Which made sense given that only about 10% of the Irish people actually speak Gaelic, and the vast majority speak English. The solution? Keep them in the number itself, with the Gaelic county name spelled out in full across the top of the plate.

The solution? Keep them in the number itself, with the Gaelic county name spelled out in full across the top of the plate. One city in Ireland has been recorded in the annals of history as Daire Calgaigh, Daire Coluimb Coille, Doire (its current name in the Irish language), Derrie and eventually Londonderry. The city council brought a case to the High Court in 2006 that the city's legal name should be changed to Derry - the council legally changed its name from Londonderry City Council to Derry City Council in 1984 - but were ruled against by the presiding judge because the city's Royal Charter was drawn up in 1662 under then name Londonderry. Most locals use "The Maiden City" or "Stroke City" (popularised by another native of the city, radio broadcaster Gerry Anderson, whose show is broadcast from the place and is referred to on-air as "Derry stroke Londonderry") to avoid alienating the other side of the political divide - but, to be honest, nearly everyone, Catholic, Protestant, atheist or Jedi, still calls it Derry. The local BBC service is "Radio Foyle" after the river. Germany Wolfsburg, Germany was originally officially named Stadt des KdF-Wagens ("City of the Strength-through-Joy Car"); most non-officials of the era just called it die Autostadt, which became the name of a large auto museum downtown. Also, in 2003 it was temporarily renamed "Golfsburg" (after the car not the game, just in case you hadn't guessed...) However, that "Golfsburg" thing wasn't an official name change, just a marketing stunt.

In a similar move to revolutionary France, the German Democratic Republic, which until 1952 consisted of five Länder (Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt and Thuringia), was redivided into 14 districts (Bezirke) named after the seat of its administration (from Rostock in the north to Suhl in the south). In this reorganisation it was made sure that the borders between two districts never coincided with an old border between two Länder. Chemnitz, Germany was called Karl-Marx-Stadt from 1952 to 1990. No prizes for guessing what part of Germany it's in. Similar, Stalinstadt, founded in 1950, renamed in 1961 to Eisenhüttenstadt (City of the Ironworks).

Austria The town of Fucking had been contemplating a name change, at least in part because Anglophone tourists keep stealing the town sign. The residents refused a name change though, and so they decided to just have theft-resistant town signs. They also make a light beer .

had been contemplating a name change, at least in part because Anglophone tourists keep stealing the town sign. The residents refused a name change though, and so they decided to just have theft-resistant town signs. The country itself was briefly renamed "Ostmark" after the Anschluss to erase its national identity. It didn't last long. France Up until The French Revolution France consisted of a number of historic provinces (such as Brittany, the Champagne, Lorraine, the Touraine etc.) which had their own laws, traditions, regional identities etc. The Revolution abolished this diversity in favour of national laws, systems of weights and measures etc. and in general tried to promote a sense of national identity over the old provincial ones. As part of this effort the old provinces were broken up into smaller administrative districts, the départements, whose names were taken from geographical features rather than the historic names of the regions, e. g. Seine, Vosges, Bas-Rhin, Vendée, Morbihan, and Marne.

In France, the geometrically-shaped city of La Roche-sur-Yon became known as Napoléon upon being made capital of Vendée prefecture on imperial decree in 1804. Upon the Bourbon Restauration it was renamed to Bourbon-Vendée, then back to Napoléon during the Hundred Days, then back to Bourbon-Vendée after Napoleon's defeat, then back to Napoléon during the Second Republic under President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, who after becoming Emperor Napoleon III, ended up going with Napoléon-Vendée. Until 1870 where the Third Republic eventually renamed the city La Roche-sur-Yon.

Further north, the city/province of Gwenedd, in southern Brittany, named after Gwynedd in Wales, eventually became the more Romance-sounding Vannes. Similarly, the old province of Kernev became Cornouaille, although unhelpfully it's named after Kernow (Cornwall), which is known as Cornouailles (note the final "s") in French. Similarly to the Guadalajara example, a number of older place-names in Brittany date back to the Brythonic settlers from Wales and Cornwall who just renamed their new settlements on the continent after existing settlements and traditional saints on the mainland. In fact, Brittany itself has the same issue, as the French language uses the same words for Brittany as for Roman Britain (Bretagne), while Great Britain is rendered as Grande Bretagne; the Breton language does the same by calling the continental peninsula Breizh and the island Breizh-Veur ("veur" means "great").

Italy Benevento, Italy was long ago called (roughly) "Maloenton" by the Oscan-speaking Samnites who inhabited it, meaning probably 'fruit market' in Oscan. To the Romans who conquered them, however, it sounded an awful lot like "Maleventum", a place of "bad events". So they changed it to something with a more positive meaning by switching out "male" (bad) with "bene" (well). According to the legend, the name was changed after a battle between the Romans and Pyrrhus (of Pyrrhic Victory fame), which they had won, hence the transition from "place of ill omens" to "good omens".

Norway Norway has a few examples. Bergen used to be Bjørgvin, Trondheim was Nidaros (Name history: Nidaros, Trondhjem, Nidaros, Trondheim, Drontheim, Trondheim) and Oslo was Christiania from 1624 to 1877 and Kristiania from 1877 to 1924. Funnily enough, the church provinces around the two first still carry the same name and there is a discussion in Oslo about renaming the center back to Kristiania. The case of Trondheim is of particular interest in this case, as the name "Trondheim" came out as a compromise. At this point (1930), there was a boost of renaming in Norway, ridding the country of Danish names. The most logical choice was to rename Trondheim with the original name: Nidaros. But the citizens protested against it, preferring to have the name "Trondhjem" ("Hjem" is more "danish" than "heim"). The city went by "Nidaros" for a year, but when the locals resorted to Torches and Pitchforks, the ruling body quickly succumbed and renamed the city "Trondheim"—which actually made sense, because the area had gone by that name even before any town was founded there.



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