Effect of changed city names?

phx1138

AH is full of places with changed names, but I've never seen an examination of the effect that might have on the city's development (if any). Why a city gets the name it does is a product of the culture of the country at the time it's named (at least in part), so, if the culture is different, wouldn't the city be, too? Or is that geographically determined (entirely or mostly)?

For instance: Denver being Auraria (which it nearly was), or San Francisco being Yerba Buena, or Dallas being Austin. (Yes, I imagine all of these in a common TL.)

Any thoughts?
 

Reflection

A big one for me: Imagine if Portland, Oregon was called Boston, Oregon. All it would've took was the coin going the other way.

Just imagine how much MA Bostonians would've hated OR Bostonians...
 

Peg Leg Pom

It makes no difference, a name is just a name and may be changed for many reasons. Just look at St Petersburg, sorry Petrograd, sorry Leningrad sorry St Petersburg (again).
 
Driftless

Driftless

Donor
One of the early names of St Paul, Minnesota (state capital) was "Pig's Eye". Named for Pierre Parrant, an early inhabitant/distiller/ne'er-do-well
 

Reflection

What if the Latin-named cities in California was changed to being more Anglo-based after it became part of the US?

The Latin names owe themselves to the Spanish, while Anglo cities own themselves to being founded by American settlers. Hence why in California you have cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Calabasas, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Modesto, Pasadena, Costa Mesa, Palo Alto, San Luis Obispo, Sacramento and Yorba Linda co-existing alongside Bakersfield, Riverside, Oceanside, Beverly Hills, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Oakland, Burbank, Berkeley, Glendale, Hayward, Lancaster, Compton, and Long Beach.

Quite a contrast if you ask me, and I can easily see them changing the name for consistency. Imagine if Los Angeles instead became Angel City, or San Diego became Sunset, or something like that? It would definitely take away a lot of what makes California unique though, which would suck as someone with a soft spot for classic California (modern... not so much).
 

Reflection

In hindsight, is it surprising that Kaliningrad stayed the same after the USSR fell? Keep in mind it was named as such after Mikhail Kalinin, a core founding member of the Soviet Union. Seeing as how they renamed Leningrad back to Saint Petersburg, they could've renamed this back to Konigsberg even if still Russian overall. Any reason why they didn't?
 

overoceans

If people connected a city's name to its character, you'd hear a lot more jokes about San Francisco being either a) the epitome of NoCal eco-socialism, because St. Francis was the proto-hippie who talked to animals, or b) the ironic negation of Franciscan values, because that order was known for being the hardcore social conservatives of their day, playing a big role in the Inquisition etc.

As it stands, I have rarely if ever heard that sort of thing mentioned about the city's name. Nor do I hear many jokes about people in St. Paul undergoing sudden conversions to new political beliefs. And I doubt that 1 in 1000 of my fellow Edmontonians could tell you who St. Albert was, though among those living in the suburb of that name, it might get up to 1 in 100.
 

TheThingNoticer

Reflection said:
In hindsight, is it surprising that Kaliningrad stayed the same after the USSR fell? Keep in mind it was named as such after Mikhail Kalinin, a core founding member of the Soviet Union. Seeing as how they renamed Leningrad back to Saint Petersburg, they could've renamed this back to Konigsberg even if still Russian overall. Any reason why they didn't?
Click to expand...
It has to do with demographics. Kaliningrad is mostly made up of Russian settlers after WW2 who are more likely to hold more nationalistic beliefs. They would never change the name back to German 😅. Compared to St. Petersburg which is much more cosmopolitan and western than the rest of Russia. It makes sense that they would change it back to the name of the Russian ruler who tried to westernize Russia. Although they never changed the province which is still called Leningrad oblast😳.
 

OldNavy1988

In the 1997 film Anastasia, there's a musical number called Rumor in St. Petersburg even though the town was already called Leningrad by 1926 IOTL.

Right?
 

brunohusker

I feel like a prime example of this would be Portland OR which was almost named Boston.

Another kind of small scale one is Lincoln NE which was originally named Lancaster as it was the seat of Lancaster County and was named Lincoln not so much to honor Lincoln but so southern Nebraska would reject the Capitol being there. Apparently a lot of southern Nebraskans were Democrats and not fond of Lincoln and some Omaha legislators thought if they made it so the new Capitol had to be called Lincoln, folks in southern Nebraska would reject it but they didn’t care and thus Lincoln was born.

Personally, I think if Omaha had kept the Capitol it only would have done so for a short time as it was way too Far East. By the mid 1870s I could see calls for the Capitol to move to somewhere around Grand Island and as such you’d see the Capitol more centrally located.

If such a thing happened I’d think you’d still see Lancaster as the home of the university, or maybe another city that would be about the size of an Ames Iowa with about 60,000 or so people while the Capitol in central Nebraska would be a similar sized city though less prosperous. Think of a place more like Topeka KS that’s a bit dumpy.
 

Nick P

Donor
When it came to naming the new settlements along the railroads of North America they picked names out of a Post Office directory or map.
en.wikipedia.org

Epping, North Dakota - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
From the town website:
The Great Northern Railroad already had put in a siding since it was customary in those days to have a station every six or seven miles. This enabled farmers with horse drawn vehicles to make the round trip in one day. Mr. Lawrence was appointed the first postmaster and several names were suggested by the P.O. Department, Epping being the one finally chosen. The name had no particular significance, but it was not a common name, and the only other town with that name was in New Hampshire. So then, since a town had been decided upon and a siding was already in, the county surveyor was hired in the spring of 1906 to survey the town site, lay out streets, blocks, lots, etc.

What was the effect of changing Edwinton to Bismarck? Did North Dakota achieve the aim of getting more German settlers and investment?
 
JanWellem

JanWellem

TheThingNoticer said:
It has to do with demographics. Kaliningrad is mostly made up of Russian settlers after WW2 who are more likely to hold more nationalistic beliefs. They would never change the name back to German 😅. ...
Click to expand...
After 1990 there were ideas floating around to rename Kaliningrad, though not so much back to Königsberg, but rather to either Kantgrad - Кантград, named after the native Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant or to Korolgrad - Корольград, a literal Russian translation of Königsberg
 

brunohusker

Nick P said:
When it came to naming the new settlements along the railroads of North America they picked names out of a Post Office directory or map.
en.wikipedia.org

Epping, North Dakota - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
From the town website:
The Great Northern Railroad already had put in a siding since it was customary in those days to have a station every six or seven miles. This enabled farmers with horse drawn vehicles to make the round trip in one day. Mr. Lawrence was appointed the first postmaster and several names were suggested by the P.O. Department, Epping being the one finally chosen. The name had no particular significance, but it was not a common name, and the only other town with that name was in New Hampshire. So then, since a town had been decided upon and a siding was already in, the county surveyor was hired in the spring of 1906 to survey the town site, lay out streets, blocks, lots, etc.

What was the effect of changing Edwinton to Bismarck? Did North Dakota achieve the aim of getting more German settlers and investment?
Click to expand...
I don't know, but its funny how the railroad had an effect on town names. I know in Nebraska, there is even a series of towns that went A, B C, D so you had Alexendria, Belvedere, Carleton, Daykin. Not sure how far they got.
 
neamathla

neamathla

phx1138 said:
Do you know why they contemplated Detroit? It strikes me as pretty peculiar (especially if this was after the one in Michigan...).
Click to expand...
The story I was told was that the two cities (St. Petersburg and Detroit) were the home towns of the civil engineers involved. The winner of the coin flip got to name the town, the loser the first hotel. There was an old hotel called the Detroit in St. Pete, I beilieve they converted into condos a few years back.
 
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