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Let's close out the week with a #geoweirdness thread about a topic that we endlessly battle with: places with multiple names.
1/
2/ There are several main reasons why places may have several names:
a. different names in different languages (ex: Munich / München)
b. Name changes due to changing borders (bye, bye Czechoslovakia)
c. Name changes for political reasons ( Bombay / Mumbai)
3/ Let's dive into some examples
Many parts of the world are multi-lingual.
For example the mountainous South Tyrol region of Italy 
, close to Austria 
. Much of the population speaks German, and calls the area Südtirol. In Italian it is the Alto Adige. Pretty much every town, village, and even street in the region has both a German and Italian name.
Similar situations exist in other multi-lingual regions
4/ Sometimes borders shift. Kaliningrad (Калинингра́д) is a Russian 
semi-exclave on the Baltic coast between Poland 
and Lithuania 
.
Originally an old Prussian settlement, in the 13th century it was invaded by the Teutonic Knights and renamed Königsberg after King Ottokar II.
After WW2 it was transferred to Soviet control and renamed Kaliningrad, after Soviet leader, Mikhail Kalinin. Later it and became part of Russia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6nigsberg
@opencage@en.osm.town5/ Sometimes language changes. A famous example is Beijing 
, known in Chinese as 北京 (North, Capital).
For much of recent history, dating back to early interactions with the West, it was known as Peking.
In 1958, China moved away from its ties with the west and adopted the Pinyin writing system, replacing the Wade-Giles romanized transliteration. This marked the end of Peking and the beginning of Beijing!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing
https://ruqintravel.com/china-destination-guides/beijing-and-peking/
6/ Many, many naming disputes are political in nature.
A famous example in the English speaking world: Depending on political persuasions the Northern Irish city is known as either “Londonderry” or “Derry”.
It’s complex, and well worth a read up on:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derry/Londonderry_name_dispute
7/ The name for Istanbul, in Türkiye 
- itself subject of a recent name change: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/03/turkey-changes-name-to-turkiye-as-other-name-is-for-the-birds - came to be after three name changes.
First, it was occupied by the Greeks and known as Byzantion.
Then it was occupied by the Romans, and known as Constantinople.
Finally, it became known as Istanbul, itself stemming from Greek.
It’s worth adding that it has had many more names throughout history:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Istanbul
8/ Sometimes places are renamed after people, especially political leaders. As was the case with Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 
.
After Communist forces captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon in 1975 it was re-named after their leader Ho Chi Minh
9/ While on the topic of cities named after people, we would be remiss to not to take a musical break to share with you Kraftklub's brilliant "Karl Mark Stadt"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOjUyFQIBVc
Today Karl Marx Stadt is of course once again known as Chemnitz 
10/ As Chemnitz shows, names sometimes get changed back.
A famous example is St. Petersburg
Originally founded as St. Petersburg in 1703, it was renamed Petrograd in 1914, then Leningrad in 1924 to honor the Soviet leader Lenin.
In 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the city reverted to its original name: St. Petersburg
11/ This list of could go on endlessly, but the question is what to do about name changes?
In response to this confusion, the UN developed a standardised system called UN/LOCODEs.
The UN Code for Trade and Transport Locations applies codes to key references such as airports, ports and major cities i.e. "USNYC" for New York City. The idea is that using codes avoids the confusion of name changes and different scripts.
12/ There are currently over 110,000 LOCODEs from 249 countries around the world and it’s used by major shipping and navigation companies.
And yes! Our API does allow for returns and searches of these LOCODES:
13/ That brings us to an end of this week's #geoweirdness thread looking at places with multiple names. Thanks for reading and sharing.
Naturally, there were many more that didn’t make the final list.
Which places can you think of that have multiple names, or have changed name, and come with an excellent story too?
As always you can find many more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc listed on our blog. Enjoy:
https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads
@opencage The one that always amazes me is Lille/Rijssel. The same city but the name in French and Flemish are so different that there seems to be no connection at all.
@lennardvanotterloo many such examples: Bratislava / Preßburg, Iruña / Pamplona, etc
@lennardvanotterloo
Comparative linguist here. There IS a connection. The city was originally built on an island. The Flemish inhabitants said they lived 'ter isele' -- on the island in old Flemish. In French, this is 'à l'île'. Flemish morphed into 'te Risele' and then further into 'te Rijsel', whereas French morphed into 'à Lille'. So yes, it IS the same name. You're welcome.
@opencage
@Eetschrijver @opencage Ha, that explains so much. Thanks!
It's common in that area to find peculiar names as it used to be a Flemish speaking area before it became a French speaking area. How Kortrijk is Courtrai in French made sense to me, how Hazebroek became Hazebrouck made sense too. Rijssel to Lille was the one that always puzzled me…
@lennardvanotterloo
It puzzles many people, but sometimes the solution, while obvious, is just buried a little deeper. 
@opencage
@Eetschrijver @opencage @lennardvanotterloo a couple of examples from the Netherlands mentioned below in a different comment are also translated toponyms: Den Bosch to Bolduque in Spanish, Boscoducale in Italian (maybe through "Latin Silva" Ducis at the Habsburg court?), and Bois-le-Duc in French; and the Hague becoming la Haye in French and L’Aia in Italian (mostly an agricultural term now), but seemingly rendered only phonetically in Spanish as La Haya. 1/2
@opencage I think an interesting case is Den Haag (The Hague) which also has a formal name, 's-Gravenhage (the count's grove). Both are proper Dutch and can be used interchangeably, although nobody uses the long form.
Fun fact: the municipality uses the long form on formal documents like birth certificates, but the short form everywhere else. Also, traffic signs use the short form.
Similarly, in the southern part of NL, there's the city of Den Bosch, aka 's-Hertogenbosch (the duke's woods)!
@opencage Also at local level it's easy to find multiple-names: there are places, buildings or monuments that are mostly known with a popular name that has no connection with their official ones, like the Parasol/Setas of Seville https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setas_de_Sevilla
There are also small land areas that are known with different names but never received a clear official one
During the French revolution, more than 1000 towns changed name. Most of these changes were reverted, but about 80 weren't (and others changed to yet another name). I wonder whether this is the first such massive change? And was it as massive in the USSR e.g?
Some places didn't change name, but had nicknames which have become urban legends: many journals and social media posts claim that #Grenoble had been renamed #Grelibre in an anti-aristocratic frenzy. This makes the left dreamy and the right angry, but this is plainly wrong – turns out Louis XVIII has used this name in a joke during his reign.
@opencage Curiously, while St. Petersburg changed to its current name, the oblast surrounding it continues to be called Leningrad Oblast
@opencage The BBC link leads to 404 error.
@opencage I meant the link in the message I was replying to directly: https://en.osm.town/@opencage/113844515320905074 → https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-6167191
@jernej__s Ahh, thanks. Changed it to a better link now. Thanks for letting us know
It’s always interesting that the IATA code for Beijing is still PEK.
