Istanbul is Istanbul but many people in the West still do call it Constantinople. Same would be the case in Jerusalem too.
Alternate names for real world cities?
- Thread starter Reflection
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Istanbul is Istanbul but many people in the West still do call it Constantinople. Same would be the case in Jerusalem too.
I think the name Jerusalem is too ingrained in Western Christian/Jewish culture to drop it. It's mentioned many times in the Bible.
Grey Wolf
Donor
I remember being laughed at derisively when I thought Boise was pronounced bwa(z) not boy-zee
Manchester, New Hampshire was previously named Derryfield before an industrialist invested there and envisioned the town as becoming "the Manchester of America", and thus rebranded the place as more or less an ad. In hindsight that might've been for the best, otherwise we'd have two large towns and a city all next to each other named Derry, Londonderry, and Derryfield.
And as much as I like the name of my birthplace of Atlanta, I think it'd have been pretty cool if it retained its earlier name Terminus. It just sounds futuristic, and it'd be extra appropriate in the modern age what with every Delta flight going anywhere having to make a connection there.
And as much as I like the name of my birthplace of Atlanta, I think it'd have been pretty cool if it retained its earlier name Terminus. It just sounds futuristic, and it'd be extra appropriate in the modern age what with every Delta flight going anywhere having to make a connection there.
Vancouver used to be Granville; keep the railhead at Port Moody, and it still would be.
I always imagined *Washington had a viable shot at being a capital for a Dominion of America anyway due to a planned city being an excellent compromise idea for north and south, independent or not, and the area being as good as any for a middling site. In which case I can see *Washington Proper being considered an expansion of Georgetown or the new planned downtown or so forth.
Basing on if America stayed British...
Minneapolis - Albion (briefly once its official name)
Lexington - Lancaster (proposed alongside York, but then news came of the Battle of Lexington)
Austin - Waterloo (its name before changing to honor the Father of Texas)
Columbus - Franklinton (Franklin being a big name anyway, and the myth of Columbus being far less strong to a British America)
Detroit - Lernoult (maybe. The fort was renamed to that, but the village kept the name Detroit and may or may not have switched in time as Americans moved in/the 1805 fire still happens)
St. Louis - St. Lewis or Pancore (called as such by British stationed in the area per the French locals' nickname of Paincourt for it, but American Francophilia kept the formal name)
Louisville - perhaps after King George of some sort or Whitehome (or some corruption. The site's very first, colloquial name when civilians came in was The White Home)
Denver - Golden (Denver for twenty-four hours was named "Golden City" for obvious miner reasons before the renaming to honor the governor, butterflies and many cities slicing off "City" as they grew would lead to this)
San Francisco - Drakesport (San Francisco Bay was called even in American maps straight up to 1846, Sir Francis Drake's Bay or Sir Francis Drake's Port - shortened to just the last two words, easy to slam into one word per names like Shreveport, LA or Williamsport, PA)
Knoxville - Amherst (one of the few times I'd cop to a parallel name than an older name as Knoxville didn't quite have one and Amherst was Secretary of War at the same time Henry Knox was, and the Americans liked Amherst for his role in the French and Indian War)
Columbia, SC - Granby (same deal as Washington vis-a-vis its now-annexed neighborhood Georgetown)
For Cologne (Köln) different PODs would result in different names. Originally founded under the name Oppidum Ubiorum in 19 BCE, in 50 CE Agrippina the younger succeeded in convincing her husband Emperor Claudius to elevate her birthplace to the status of 'city' under Roman law, henceforth named Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (C.C.A.A.), usually shortened to Colonia Agrippina and noted as merely Agripina on the Tabula Peutingeriana, a medieval copy of a Roman map from late antiquity. IOTL the Colonia part stuck and developped into Cöllen and finally into Köln.
But in a different TL, where Claudius never becomes emperor or doesn't marry Agrippina the younger or where she just doesn't convince him to elevate her birthplace to a Roman colonia, and the city retains its' original name of Oppidum Ubiorum, Cologne would've ended up with a name derived from either Oppidum, possibly something like Oppeln/Öppeln or from Ubiorum, possibly something like Ubern/Übern.
Another possibility would be that the Agrippina instead of the Colonia part of Colonia Agrippina sticks and Cologne is known as Agripina, just like on the Tabula Peutingeriana or that C.C.A.A. is shortened to Colonia Claudia instead of Colonia Agrippina with the Claudia part sticking. Yet another possibility would be a different emperor elevating the city to the status of a Roman colony under a different name, let's say Colonia Flavia Vespasiana, with either the Flavia or Vespasiana part sticking.
Yet another possibility would be, that the city is renamed after one of its' patrons, either St. Gereon or St. Ursula after christianisation and last, but not least, that the Benrath line seperating low from high German ends up running through Bonn instead of Benrath and Cöllen is rendered in its' low German / Dutch spelling as Ceulen/Keulen.
But in a different TL, where Claudius never becomes emperor or doesn't marry Agrippina the younger or where she just doesn't convince him to elevate her birthplace to a Roman colonia, and the city retains its' original name of Oppidum Ubiorum, Cologne would've ended up with a name derived from either Oppidum, possibly something like Oppeln/Öppeln or from Ubiorum, possibly something like Ubern/Übern.
Another possibility would be that the Agrippina instead of the Colonia part of Colonia Agrippina sticks and Cologne is known as Agripina, just like on the Tabula Peutingeriana or that C.C.A.A. is shortened to Colonia Claudia instead of Colonia Agrippina with the Claudia part sticking. Yet another possibility would be a different emperor elevating the city to the status of a Roman colony under a different name, let's say Colonia Flavia Vespasiana, with either the Flavia or Vespasiana part sticking.
Yet another possibility would be, that the city is renamed after one of its' patrons, either St. Gereon or St. Ursula after christianisation and last, but not least, that the Benrath line seperating low from high German ends up running through Bonn instead of Benrath and Cöllen is rendered in its' low German / Dutch spelling as Ceulen/Keulen.
Paris could remain Lutece or Lutecia with a POD before the change of name from Lutecia apud Parisios to plain Parisios in the Late Roman Empire.
If this kind of change (giving the town the name of the people who lived here) doesn't take place to Lutecia, the same can happen to other towns. Here are a few names we could have:
Amiens: Samarobriva => Sambrive
Angers: Juliomagus/Juliomago => Julimage
Bayeux: Augustodurum => Audrun
Clermont-Ferrand: Augustonemetum => Aunimes
Évreux: Mediolanum Aulercorum => Milan-des-Aulerques
Le Mans: Vindunum => Vindon
Le Puy-en-Velay: Anicium => Anis
Metz: Divodurum Mediomatricorum => Diverun
Néris-les-Bains: Neriomagus/Aquae Nerii => Nérimage or Eaux-Noires (or Aigues-Noires)
Poitiers: Lemonum/Limonum => Lemons
Reims: Durocortorum => Durcortun
Rennes: Condate Riedonum => Condate
Rodez: Segodunum => Segdun or Sédun
Sainte: Mediolanum Santonum => Milan-des-Santons
Sens: Agedincum => Agedin
Tours: Caesarodunum => Césartun or even Cétun (just as Augustodunum became Autun)
Vannes: Dariorigum/Darioritum => Darites
If this kind of change (giving the town the name of the people who lived here) doesn't take place to Lutecia, the same can happen to other towns. Here are a few names we could have:
Amiens: Samarobriva => Sambrive
Angers: Juliomagus/Juliomago => Julimage
Bayeux: Augustodurum => Audrun
Clermont-Ferrand: Augustonemetum => Aunimes
Évreux: Mediolanum Aulercorum => Milan-des-Aulerques
Le Mans: Vindunum => Vindon
Le Puy-en-Velay: Anicium => Anis
Metz: Divodurum Mediomatricorum => Diverun
Néris-les-Bains: Neriomagus/Aquae Nerii => Nérimage or Eaux-Noires (or Aigues-Noires)
Poitiers: Lemonum/Limonum => Lemons
Reims: Durocortorum => Durcortun
Rennes: Condate Riedonum => Condate
Rodez: Segodunum => Segdun or Sédun
Sainte: Mediolanum Santonum => Milan-des-Santons
Sens: Agedincum => Agedin
Tours: Caesarodunum => Césartun or even Cétun (just as Augustodunum became Autun)
Vannes: Dariorigum/Darioritum => Darites
Any way that New York could have stayed New Amsterdam even after Britain got it. It seems to me to be a bit more like Amsterdam that York
What if the American Constitution rigidly separated church-and-state and banned religion from gov't entirely?
Then any city named after a god or saint would need to be renamed.
Many Spanish names for towns or rivers derive from the Saint's Day that white men first discovered them.
"Corpus Christi" Texas does not translate gracefully into "Body of Christ"
Saint Augustine, Florida
San Francisco, California might become "Golden Gate(s)
San Diego might become "the port in the South West Corner"
Sorry folks, but I have been reading "The Spanish Frontier in North America" by David J. Weber.
Then any city named after a god or saint would need to be renamed.
Many Spanish names for towns or rivers derive from the Saint's Day that white men first discovered them.
"Corpus Christi" Texas does not translate gracefully into "Body of Christ"
Saint Augustine, Florida
San Francisco, California might become "Golden Gate(s)
San Diego might become "the port in the South West Corner"
Sorry folks, but I have been reading "The Spanish Frontier in North America" by David J. Weber.
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Erasing the names of previous rulers is common practice in many countries.
For example, since French-Canadians gained control of Quebec during the Quiet Revolution (starting 1956) they have been trying to erase memories of how English-speaking United Empire Loyalists were the first white men to settle the Eastern Townships near the border with New Hampshire. L'office de la lang francais has been hanging french-catholic parish names on towns that contained no frenchmen for the first hundred years after they were founded (starting shortly after the American Revolutionary War 1776).
"Saint Adolf de Dudswell" is an example of adding a French parish name on the front of an older name based upon the name of a town in England.
I suspect that to long term goal was to chase out the loathed "anglais" and replace them with good French-speakers, then wait for the English name to fade from the too-long official town name.
For example, since French-Canadians gained control of Quebec during the Quiet Revolution (starting 1956) they have been trying to erase memories of how English-speaking United Empire Loyalists were the first white men to settle the Eastern Townships near the border with New Hampshire. L'office de la lang francais has been hanging french-catholic parish names on towns that contained no frenchmen for the first hundred years after they were founded (starting shortly after the American Revolutionary War 1776).
"Saint Adolf de Dudswell" is an example of adding a French parish name on the front of an older name based upon the name of a town in England.
I suspect that to long term goal was to chase out the loathed "anglais" and replace them with good French-speakers, then wait for the English name to fade from the too-long official town name.
Most of the Spanish town names after the missions, which were in turn are named after saints however in most cased their names were longer denoting te place of birth of the saint or other references. For example San Luis Obispo, is named after the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, which is named after 'St. Louis Bishop of Toulouse'. Thus in this case the name could be called Obispo, Tolosa, or fully translated into Bishop or Toulouse or even something like Louistown.
The problem is that England and the Dutch Republic were enemies at the time, so the English were happy to change the name.
Perhaps if England/UK could acquire the colony peacefully, it would be possible.
According to local legend, the founders of St Petersburg, Florida flipped a coin to pick the name of the city. Peter Demens (nee Pyotr A Dementyev) won and named it after the his home town in Russia. Had the other contestant, John Williams, won, the city would have been named for his hometown: Detroit.