An endonym (from
Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native''
name for a
geographical place, group of people, individual person,
language or
dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, or
linguistic community in question; it is their self-designated name for themselves, their homeland, or their language.
An exonym (from Greek: , 'outer' + , 'name'; also known as xenonym) is an established, ''non-native''
name for a
geographical place, group of people, individual person,
language or
dialect, meaning that it is used only outside that particular place, group, or
linguistic community.
Exonyms exist not only for
historico-geographical reasons but also in consideration of difficulties when pronouncing foreign words.
For instance, is the endonym for the country that is also known by the exonym ''
Germany'' in
English, in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and in
French.
Naming and etymology
The terms ''autonym'', ''endonym'', ''exonym'' and ''xenonym'' are formed by adding specific
prefixes to the
Greek root word (, 'name'), from
Proto-Indo-European '.
The
prefixes added to these terms are also derived from Greek:
*endonym: (, 'within');
*exonym: (, 'outside');
*autonym: (, 'self'); and
*xenonym: (, 'foreign').
The terms ''autonym'' and ''xenonym'' also have different applications, thus leaving ''endonym'' and ''exonym'' as the preferred forms.
Marcel Aurousseau
Marcel Aurousseau BSc ( Syd.) MC '' C. de G.'' (19 April 1891 in Woollahra, Sydney – 22 August 1983 in Sydney) was an Australian geographer, geologist, war hero, historian and translator. , an Australian
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" ...
, first
TOC
used the term ''exonym'' in his work ''The Rendering of Geographical Names'' (1957).
The term ''endonym'' was subsequently devised as a
retronymic
antonym
In lexical semantics, opposites are words lying in an inherently incompatible binary relationship. For example, something that is ''long'' entails that it is not ''short''. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members ...
for the term ''exonym''.
Typology
Endonyms and
exonyms can be divided in three main categories:
* endonyms and exonyms of place names (
toponyms),
* endonyms and exonyms of human names (
anthroponym
Anthroponymy (also anthroponymics or anthroponomastics, from Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος ''anthrōpos'' / 'human', and ὄνομα ''onoma'' / 'name') is the study of ''anthroponyms'', the proper names of human beings, both individual and c ...
s), including names of
ethnic groups (
ethnonyms), localised populations (
demonym
A demonym (; ) or gentilic () is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, ...
s), and individuals (
personal name
A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is know ...
s),
* endonyms and exonyms of language names (
glossonym
Linguonym (from la, lingua / language, and gr, ὄνομα / name) also known as glossonym (from grc, γλῶσσα / language) or glottonym (from Attic Greek: γλῶττα / language), is a linguistic term that designates a proper name of an ...
s).
Endonyms and exonyms of toponyms
As it pertains to
geographical feature
A feature (also called an object or entity), in the context of geography and geographic information science, is a discrete phenomenon that exists at a location in the space and scale of relevance to geography; that is, at or near the surface of Ea ...
s, the
United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names defines:
*Endonym: "Name of a geographical feature in an official or well-established language occurring in that area where the feature is located."
* Exonym: "Name used in a specific language for a geographical feature situated outside the area where that language is spoken, and differing in its form from the name used in an official or well-established language of that area where the geographical feature is located."
For example, ''
India'', ''
China'', ''
Egypt'', and ''Germany'' are the English-language exonyms corresponding to the endonyms ( hi,
भारत, label=none), (), ( ar,
مَصر, label=none), and ', respectively.
Endonyms and exonyms of glossonyms
In the case of endonyms and exonyms of
language names (glossonyms), ''
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...
,'' ''
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
'', and ''
Dutch'', for example, are English-language exonyms for the languages that are endonymously known as (), , and ''Nederlands'', respectively.
Exonyms in relation to endonyms
By their relation to endonyms, all exonyms can be divided into three main categories:
* those derived from different roots, as in the case of Germany for ;
* those that are
cognate words, diverged only in
pronunciation or
orthography;
* those that are fully or partially translated (a
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language w ...
) from the native language.
Sometimes, a place name may be unable to use many of the letters when
transliterated into an exonym because of the corresponding language's lack of common sounds.
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
, having only one
liquid consonant, is an example of this here.
Cognate exonyms
London (originally la, Londinium), for example, is known by the cognate exonyms:
* in
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
,
Filipino,
French,
Galician,
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
, and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
;
* () in
Greek;
* in
Dutch;
* in
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional It ...
,
Maltese,
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
** Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...
,
Sardinian and
Turkish;
* in
Albanian;
* in
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech ...
and
Slovak;
* in
Polish;
* in
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
;
* in
Icelandic;
* in
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
;
* in
Scottish Gaelic;
* in
Welsh;
* in
Finnish;
* () in
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
;
* () in
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
.
Translated exonyms
An example of a translated exonym is the name for the
Netherlands ( in Dutch) used, respectively, in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
(),
French (),
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional It ...
(),
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
(),
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
(),
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
() and
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
** Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...
(), all of which mean "
Low Countries". However, note that the endonym is singular, while all the aforementioned translations are plural.
Native and borrowed exonyms
Exonyms can also be divided into native and borrowed, e.g., from a third language. For example, the
Slovene exonyms (
Vienna) and (
Venice) are native, but the
Avar name of Paris, (''Parizh'') is borrowed from
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
* Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and p ...
(''Parizh''), which comes from Polish , which comes from Italian .
A substantial proportion of English-language exonyms for places in
continental Europe
Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, b ...
are borrowed (or adapted) from French; for example:
*
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 m ...
( sr, Београд, translit=Beograd);
*
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
( ro, București);
*
Cologne (german: Köln);
*
Florence ( it, Firenze);
*
Milan ( it, Milano);
*
Munich (german: München);
*
Naples ( it, Napoli / nap, Napule);
*
Navarre
Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...
( es, Navarra / eu, Nafarroa);
*
Prague ( cs, Praha); and
*
Rome ( it, Roma).
Typical development of exonyms
According to
James Matisoff
James Alan Matisoff ( zh, , t=馬蒂索夫, s=马蒂索夫, p=Mǎdìsuǒfū or zh, , t=馬提索夫, s=马提索夫, p=Mǎtísuǒfū; born July 14, 1937) is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a ...
, who introduced the term ''autonym'' into
linguistics: "Human nature being what it is, exonyms are liable to be pejorative rather than complimentary, especially where there is a real or fancied difference in cultural level between
the ingroup and the outgroup." For example, Matisoff notes, "an opprobrious term indicating mixed race or parentage" is the
Palaung name for
Jingpo people and the
Jingpo name for
Chin people
The Chin people (, ) are a Southeast Asian people native to Chin State and its neighbouring states of Myanmar.Head, JonathanBurma's 'abused Chin need help' ''BBC News'', Jan 28, 2009, accessed Jan 28, 2009 The Chin are one of the founding groups ...
; both the Jingpo and
Burmese use the Chinese word ('' zh, c=野人, s=, t=, p=, l=wild men, savage, rustic people, labels=no'') as the name for
Lisu people
The Lisu people ( Lisu: ; my, လီဆူလူမျိုး, ; ; th, ลีสู่) are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group who inhabit mountainous regions of Myanmar (Burma), southwest China, Thailand, and the Indian state of Arunachal Prades ...
.
Exonyms develop for places of significance for speakers of the language of the exonym. Consequently, many European capitals have English exonyms, for example:
*
Athens ( el, Αθήνα, translit=Athína);
*
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 m ...
( sr, Београд, translit=Beograd);
*
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
( ro, București);
*
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
(french: Bruxelles, nl, Brussel);
*
Copenhagen ( da, København);
*
Lisbon ( pt, Lisboa);
*
Moscow (russian: Москва, translit=Moskva);
*
Prague ( cs, Praha);
*
Rome ( it, Roma);
*
Vienna (german: Wien); and
*
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa).
In contrast, historically less-prominent capitals such as
Ljubljana and
Zagreb do not have English exonyms, but do have exonyms in languages spoken nearby, e.g.
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
: and (the latter being obsolete);
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional It ...
: ''Lubiana'' and ''Zagabria''.
Madrid,
Berlin,
Oslo, and
Amsterdam, with identical names in most major
European languages, are exceptions.
Some European cities might be considered partial exceptions, in that whilst the spelling is the same across languages, the pronunciation can differ. For example, the city of
Paris is spelled the same way in French and English, but the French pronunciation [] is different from the English pronunciation [].
For places considered to be of lesser significance, attempts to reproduce local names have been made in English since the time of the Crusades. [
ivorno, for instance, was ''Leghorn'' because it was an Italian port essential to English merchants and, by the 18th century, to the
British Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
; not far away,
Rapallo
Rapallo ( , , ) is a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, located in the Liguria region of northern Italy.
As of 2017 it had 29,778 inhabitants. It lies on the Ligurian Sea coast, on the Tigullio Gulf, between Portofino and Chiava ...
, a minor port on the same sea, never received an exonym.
In earlier times, the name of the first tribe or village encountered became the exonym for the whole people beyond. Thus, the Romans used the tribal names (Greek) and (Germanic), the Russians used the village name of ''
Chechen'', medieval Europeans took the tribal name ''
Tatar
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different '' as emblematic for the whole
Mongolic confederation (and then confused it with ''Tartarus'', a word for
Hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells ...
, to produce ''
Tartar''), and the
Magyar invaders were equated with the 500-years-earlier
Hunnish invaders in the same territory, and were called ''Hungarians''.
The
Germanic invaders of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
applied the word "
Walha" to foreigners they encountered and this evolved in
West Germanic languages
The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into t ...
as a generic name for all non-Germanic speakers; thence, the names
Wallachia,
Vlachs
"Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Easter ...
,
Wallonia,
Walloons
Walloons (; french: Wallons ; wa, Walons) are a Gallo-Romance ethnic group living native to Wallonia and the immediate adjacent regions of France. Walloons primarily speak '' langues d'oïl'' such as Belgian French, Picard and Walloon. Wallo ...
,
Cornwall,
Wales,
Wallasey
Wallasey () is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England; until 1974, it was part of the historic county of Cheshire. It is situated at the mouth of the River Mersey, at the north-eastern corner of the Wirral P ...
,
Welche
Welche is a little-spoken language of Alsace. A Lorrain dialect, it is closely related to French by the Oïl group. Its varieties include those of Bruche, Villé, Lièpvre, Kaysersberg and Orbey.
The name ''Welche'' is a French spelling o ...
in
Alsace-Lorraine, and even the Polish name for Italy, .
Usage
In avoiding exonyms
During the late 20th century, the use of exonyms often became controversial. Groups often prefer that outsiders avoid exonyms where they have come to be used in a
pejorative
A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...
way. For example,
Romani people often prefer that term to exonyms such as ''
Gypsy'' (from the name of
Egypt), and the French term (from the name of
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohe ...
). People may also avoid exonyms for reasons of historical sensitivity, as in the case of German names for Polish and Czech places that, at one time, had been ethnically or politically German (e.g. Danzig/
Gdańsk, Auschwitz/
Oświęcim
Oświęcim (; german: Auschwitz ; yi, אָשפּיצין, Oshpitzin) is a city in the Lesser Poland ( pl, Małopolska) province of southern Poland, situated southeast of Katowice, near the confluence of the Vistula (''Wisła'') and Soła riv ...
and Karlsbad/
Karlovy Vary); and Russian names for non-Russian locations that were subsequently renamed or had their spelling changed (e.g. Kiev/
Kyiv).
In recent years,
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" ...
s have sought to reduce the use of exonyms to avoid this kind of problem. For example, it is now common for Spanish speakers to refer to the Turkish capital as
Ankara
Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, mak ...
rather than use the Spanish exonym . According to the
United Nations Statistics Division
The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), formerly the United Nations Statistical Office, serves under the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) as the central mechanism within the Secretariat of the United Nations t ...
:
Time has, however, shown that initial ambitious attempts to rapidly decrease the number of exonyms were over-optimistic and not possible to realise in an intended way. The reason would appear to be that many exonyms have become common words in a language and can be seen as part of the language's cultural heritage.
In preference of exonyms
In some situations, the use of exonyms can be preferred. For instance, in
multilingual cities such as
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, which is known for its linguistic tensions between Dutch- and French-speakers, a neutral name may be preferred so as to not offend anyone. Thus, an exonym such as Brussels in English could be used instead of favoring either one of the local names (
Dutch/
Flemish: ;
French: ).
Other difficulties with endonyms have to do with pronunciation, spelling, and
word category. The endonym may include sounds and spellings that are highly unfamiliar to speakers of other languages, making appropriate usage difficult if not impossible for an outsider. Over the years, the endonym may have undergone
phonetic changes, either in the original language or the borrowing language, thus changing an endonym into an exonym, as in the case of ''Paris'', where the ''s'' was formerly pronounced in French. Another example is the endonym for the German city of
Cologne, where the
Latin original of has evolved into in German, while the Italian and Spanish exonym or the Portuguese closely reflects the Latin original.
In some cases, no
standardised spelling is available, either because the language itself is unwritten (even unanalysed) or because there are competing non-standard spellings. Use of a misspelled endonym is perhaps more problematic than the respectful use of an existing exonym. Finally, an endonym may be a
plural noun and may not naturally extend itself to
adjectival usage in another language like English, which has the propensity to use the adjectives for describing culture and language. The attempt to use the endonym thus has a bizarre-sounding result.
Official preferences
Sometimes the government of a country tries to endorse the use of an endonym instead of traditional exonyms outside the country:
* In 1782,
King Yotfa Chulalok of
Siam moved the government seat from
Thon Buri Province to
Phra Nakhon Province
Phra () is a Thai term that may refer to:
*''Phra'', a Thai-language term for Buddhist monk
*''Phra'', a Thai-language term for priest
*''Phra'', a Thai-language word used as a prefix denoting holy or royal status, including in Thai royal ranks ...
. In 1972 the
Thai government merged Thon Buri and Phra Nakhon, forming the new capital, Krungthep Mahanakhon. However, outside of Thailand, the capital retained the old name and is still called
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...
.
* In 1935,
Reza Shah requested that foreign nations use the name
Iran rather than Persia in official correspondence. The name of the country had internally been
Iran since the time of the
Sassanid Empire (224–651), whereas the name Persia is descended from
Greek ('), referring to a single province which is officially known as
Fars Province.
* In 1949, the government of
Siam changed the name to
Thailand, although the former name's adjective in English (''Siamese'') was retained as the name for the
fish,
cat
The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...
and
conjoined twins
Conjoined twins – sometimes popularly referred to as Siamese twins – are twins joined ''in utero''. A very rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence ...
.
* In 1972, the government of
Ceylon
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
(the word is the
anglicized
Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...
form of Portuguese ) changed the name to
Sri Lanka, although the name Ceylon was retained as the name for
that type of tea.
* In 1985, the government of
Côte d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
requested that the country's French name be used in all languages instead of exonyms such as ''
Ivory Coast'', so that Côte d'Ivoire is now the official English name of that country in the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
and the
International Olympic Committee (see
name of Côte d'Ivoire). In most non-
Francophone
French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...
countries, however, the French version has not entered common parlance. For example, in German, the country is known as , in Spanish as and in Italian as .
* In 1989, the
government of Burma
Myanmar ( also known as Burma) operates ''de jure'' as a unitary assembly-independent republic under its 2008 constitution. On 1 February 2021, Myanmar's military took over the government in a coup, causing ongoing anti-coup protests.
Po ...
requested that the English name of the country be
Myanmar, with ''Myanma'' as the adjective of the country and ''Bamar'' as the name of the inhabitants (see
names of Burma).
* The
Government of India officially changed the English name of Bombay to
Mumbai in November 1995, following a trend of
renaming of cities and states in India that has occurred since independence.
* The
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
government maintains that the capital of Ukraine should be spelled ''Kyiv'' in English because the traditional English exonym ''Kiev'' was derived from the Russian name (') (see
Name of Kyiv).
* The
Belarusian government argues that the endonym ''Belarus'' should be used in all languages. The result has been rather successful in English, where the former exonym ''Byelorussia''/''Belorussia'', still used with reference to the
Soviet Republic, has virtually died out; in other languages, exonyms are still much more common than ''Belarus'', for instance in
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
, Dutch ,
Estonian
Estonian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe
* Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent
* Estonian language
* Estonian cuisine
* Estonian culture
See also
*
...
,
Faroese , Finnish , German , Greek (), Hungarian , Icelandic ,
Swedish , Turkish , Chinese ('),
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
() (all literally 'White Russia'), or French , Italian , Portuguese , Spanish , and
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe
* someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people
* Serbian language
* Serbian names
See also
*
*
* Old Serbian (disambiguation ...
().
* The government of
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
has been working to have the country renamed from the Russian-derived exonym of in foreign languages to ''Georgia''. Most countries have adopted this change, except for
Lithuania, which adopted (a Lithuanianised version of the country's endonym). As a response, Georgia changed the name of Lithuania in Georgian from the Russian-derived (') to the endonym ('). Ukrainian politicians have also suggested that Ukraine change the Ukrainian name of Georgia from (') to (').
* In 2006, the
South Korean national government officially changed the Chinese name of its capital,
Seoul, from the exonym ' () derived from the
Joseon era
Hanja name () to ('). This use has now been made official within China.
* In December 2021, a circular was issued by President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to ...
of
Turkey ordering the use of Türkiye (also rendered Turkiye in English) instead of exonyms in official communications, no matter the language.
Hanyu Pinyin
Following the 1979 declaration of
Hanyu Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
spelling as the standard
romanisation of Chinese, many Chinese endonyms have successfully replaced English exonyms, especially city and most provincial names in
mainland China, for example:
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 2 ...
( zh, c=北京, s=, t=, p=Běijīng, labels=no),
Qingdao ('' zh, c=青岛, s=, t=, p=Qīngdǎo, labels=no''), and the Province of
Guangdong ('' zh, c=广东, s=, t=, p=Guǎngdōng, labels=no''). However, older English exonyms are sometimes used in certain contexts, for example: Peking (Beijing;
duck,
opera, etc.), Tsingtao (Qingdao), and Canton (Guangdong). In some cases the traditional English exonym is based on a local Chinese dialect instead of
Mandarin, in the case of
Xiamen
Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, ...
, where the name Amoy is closer to the
Hokkien pronunciation.
In the case of ''Beijing'', the adoption of the exonym by media outlets quickly gave rise to a
hyperforeignised pronunciation, with the result that many English speakers actualize the ''j'' in ''Beijing'' as . One exception of Pinyin standardization in mainland China is the spelling of the province
Shaanxi, which is the
Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Gwoyeu Romatzyh (), abbreviated GR, is a system for writing Mandarin Chinese in the Latin alphabet. The system was conceived by Yuen Ren Chao and developed by a group of linguists including Chao and Lin Yutang from 1925 to 1926. Chao himself lat ...
spelling of the province. That is because if Pinyin were used to spell the province, it would be indistinguishable from its neighboring province
Shanxi, where the pronunciations of the two provinces only differ by tones, which are usually not written down when used in English.
In Taiwan, however, the standardization of Hanyu Pinyin has only seen mixed results. In
Taipei, most (but not all) street and district names shifted to Hanyu Pinyin. For example, the Sinyi District is now spelled
Xinyi. However, districts like
Tamsui and even Taipei itself are not spelled according to Hanyu Pinyin spelling rules. As a matter of fact, most names of Taiwanese cities are still spelled using
Chinese postal romanization
Postal romanization was a system of transliterating Chinese place names developed by postal authorities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For many cities, the corresponding postal romanization was the most common English-language form ...
, including
Taipei,
Taichung,
Taitung,
Keelung
Keelung () or Jilong () (; Hokkien POJ: '), officially known as Keelung City, is a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. The city is a part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, along with its neighbors, New Tai ...
, and
Kaohsiung.
During the 1980's, the Singapore Government encouraged the use of Hanyu Pinyin spelling for place names, especially those with Teochew, Hokkien or Cantonese names, as part of the
Speak Mandarin Campaign
The Speak Mandarin Campaign (SMC; ) is an initiative by the government of Singapore to encourage the Singaporean Chinese population to speak Standard Mandarin Chinese, one of the four official languages of Singapore. Launched on 7 September 197 ...
to promote Mandarin and discourage the use of dialects. For example, the area of Nee Soon, named after
Teochew-Peranakan businessman
Lim Nee Soon
Lim Nee Soon (; 12 November 1879 – 20 March 1936) was a Singaporean banker and businessman who promoted social and community matters, and was a respected community leader in Singapore. Lim was of Peranakan descent, with ancestry from Chenghai D ...
(Hanyu Pinyin: Lín Yìshùn) became Yishun and the neighbourhood schools and places established following the change used the Hanyu Pinyin spelling. In contrast,
Hougang
Hougang is a planning area and mature residential town located in the North-East Region of Singapore. The town is the most populous in the region, being home to 247,528 residents as of 2018. Hougang planning area is bordered by Sengkang to t ...
is the Hanyu Pinyin spelling but the Hokkien pronunciation ''au-kang'' is most commonly used. The changes to Hanyu Pinyin were not only financially costly but were unpopular with the locals, who opined that the Hanyu Pinyin versions were too difficult for non-Chinese or non-Mandarin speakers to pronounce. The government eventually stopped the changes by the 1990's, which has led to some place names within a locality having differing spellings. For example, Nee Soon Road and the
Singapore Armed Forces base Nee Soon Camp are both located in Yishun but retained the old spelling.
Exonyms as pejoratives
Matisoff wrote, "A group's autonym is often egocentric, equating the name of the people with 'mankind in general,' or the name of the language with 'human speech'."
In
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
, the term ' is used for speakers of any language different from Basque (usually Spanish or French).
Many millennia earlier, the Greeks thought that all non-Greeks were uncultured and so called them "
barbarians", which eventually
gave rise to the exonym "
Berber".
Slavic people
Exonyms often describe others as "foreign-speaking", "non-speaking", or "nonsense-speaking". One example is the
Slavic term for the Germans, , possibly deriving from plural of ("mute"); standard etymology has it that the
Slav
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
ic peoples referred to their Germanic neighbors as "mutes" because their language was unintelligible. The term survives to this day in the Slavic languages (e.g.
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
* Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and p ...
; ), and was borrowed into
Hungarian,
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
** Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...
, and
Ottoman Turkish
Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...
(in which case it referred specifically to
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous c ...
).
One of the more prominent theories regarding the origin of the term "
Slav
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
" suggests that it comes from the Slavic root (hence "
Slovakia" and "
Slovenia" for example), meaning 'word' or 'speech'. In this context, the
Slavs are describing Germanic people as "mutes"—in contrast to themselves, "the speaking ones".
Native Americans
The most common names of several
Indigenous American tribes derive from pejorative exonyms. The name "
Apache
The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño and ...
" most likely derives from a
Zuni word meaning "enemy". The name "
Sioux", an abbreviated form of , most likely derived from a
Proto-Algonquian
Proto-Algonquian (commonly abbreviated PA) is the proto-language from which the various Algonquian languages are descended. It is generally estimated to have been spoken around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, but there is less agreement on where it was ...
term, ('foreign-speaking). The name "
Comanche" comes from the
Ute word meaning "enemy, stranger". The
Ancestral Puebloans
The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, an ...
are also known as the "Anasazi", a
Navajo word meaning "ancient enemies", and contemporary
Puebloans
The Puebloans or Pueblo peoples, are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Currently 100 pueblos are actively inhabited, among which Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Z ...
discourage the use of the exonym.
Various Native-American autonyms are sometimes explained to English readers as having literal translations of "original people" or "normal people", with implicit contrast to other first nations as not original or not normal.
Confusion with renaming
In Eurasia
Exonyms and endonyms must not be confused with the results of
geographical renaming as in the case of
Saint Petersburg, which became Petrograd (') in 1914, Leningrad (') in 1924, and again Saint Petersburg (', ) in 1991. In this case, although ''Saint Petersburg'' has a German etymology, it was never a German exonym for the city between 1914 and 1991, just as
Nieuw Amsterdam, the Dutch name of
New York City until 1664, is not its Dutch exonym.
Old place names that have become outdated after renaming may afterward still be used as
historicisms. For example, even today one would talk about the
Siege of Leningrad
The siege of Leningrad (russian: links=no, translit=Blokada Leningrada, Блокада Ленинграда; german: links=no, Leningrader Blockade; ) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet Union, So ...
, not the Siege of St. Petersburg because at that time (1941–1944) the city was called Leningrad. Likewise, one would say that
Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg in 1724, not in
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...
('), as it has been called since 1946.
Likewise,
Istanbul (Turkish: ) is still called (') in Greek, although the name was changed in Turkish to dissociate the city from its Greek past between 1923 and 1930 (the name Istanbul itself
derives from a Medieval Greek phrase).
["The Names of Kōnstantinoúpolis". Dünden bugüne İstanbul ansiklopedisi. 5. Ciltli. 1994.] Prior to , the city was known in Greek as ( el, Βυζάντιον, la, Byzantium), named after its mythical founder,
Byzas
Byzas ( Ancient Greek: Βύζας, ''Býzas'') was the legendary founder of Byzantium (Ancient Greek: Βυζάντιον, ''Byzántion''), the city later known as Constantinople and then Istanbul.
Background
The legendary history of the foundin ...
.
In East Asia
Although the pronunciation for several names of Chinese cities such as
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 2 ...
and
Nanjing has not changed for quite some time while in
Mandarin Chinese (although the
prestige dialect shifted from
Nanjing dialect
The Nanjing dialect, also known as Nankinese, or Nanjing Mandarin, is a dialect of Mandarin Chinese spoken in Nanjing, China. It is part of the Jianghuai group of Chinese varieties.
Phonology
A number of features distinguish the Nanjing diale ...
to
Beijing dialect
The Beijing dialect (), also known as Pekingese and Beijingese, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, the official language in the People's Republic of Ch ...
during the 19th century), they were called
Peking and
Nanking in English due to the older
Chinese postal romanization
Postal romanization was a system of transliterating Chinese place names developed by postal authorities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For many cities, the corresponding postal romanization was the most common English-language form ...
convention, based largely on the
Nanjing dialect
The Nanjing dialect, also known as Nankinese, or Nanjing Mandarin, is a dialect of Mandarin Chinese spoken in Nanjing, China. It is part of the Jianghuai group of Chinese varieties.
Phonology
A number of features distinguish the Nanjing diale ...
, which was used for transcribing Chinese place names before
Pinyin, based largely on the
Beijing dialect
The Beijing dialect (), also known as Pekingese and Beijingese, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, the official language in the People's Republic of Ch ...
became the official
romanization method for
Mandarin in the 1970s. Since the Mandarin pronunciation does not perfectly map to an
English phoneme, English speakers using either romanization will not pronounce the names correctly if standard English pronunciation is used. Nonetheless, many older English speakers still refer to the cities by their older English names, and even today they are often used in their traditional associations, such as
Peking duck,
Peking opera
Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognize ...
, and
Peking University
Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education.
Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charte ...
. As for Saint Petersburg, the historical event called the
Nanking Massacre
The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the ...
(1937) uses the city's older name because that was the name of the city at the time of occurrence.
Likewise, many Korean cities like
Busan
Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...
and
Incheon (formerly
Pusan and
Inchǒn respectively) also underwent changes in spelling due to changes in romanization, even though the Korean pronunciations have largely stayed the same.
In India
The name
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
, now
Chennai
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Tamil Nadu, the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and territories of India, Indian state. The largest city ...
, maybe
a special case. When the city was first
settled by English people, in the early 17th century, both names were in use. They possibly referred to different villages which were fused into the new settlement. In any case, Madras became the exonym, while more recently, Chennai became the endonym. Madrasi, a term for a native of the city, has often been used derogatorily to refer to the people of
Dravidian origin from the
southern states of India.
Lists of exonyms
*
Latin exonyms
*
List of English exonyms
**
English exonyms for German toponyms
**
English-translated personal names
*List of
French exonyms
Below is a list of French language exonyms for places in non-French-speaking areas:
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Argentina
Armenia
Austria
Australia
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Belarus
''le Bélarus'', French name for Belarus crea ...
**
French exonyms for Dutch toponyms
**
French exonyms for German toponyms
**
French exonyms for Italian toponyms
*List of
German exonyms
**
German names for Central European towns
Many places in Central Europe, mostly in the former German Empire and Austria-Hungary but now in non-German-speaking countries, traditionally had names in the German language. Many such names have been used for centuries by the German presence in ...
**
German exonyms for places in Belgium
**
German exonyms for places in Croatia
**
German exonyms for places in Denmark
**
German exonyms for places in Estonia
**
German exonyms for places in Hungary
**
German exonyms for places in Latvia
**
German exonyms for places in Slovakia
**
German exonyms for places in Switzerland
*
List of European exonyms {{Short description, none
Below is a list with links to further Wikipedia-pages containing lists of exonyms of various European languages for villages, towns, and cities in Europe.
* Albanian exonyms
* Basque exonyms
* Bulgarian exonyms
* Catalan e ...
**
Names of European cities in different languages
Many cities in Europe have different names in different languages. Some cities have also undergone name changes for political or other reasons. This article attempts to give all known different names for all major cities that are geographically or ...
**
Finnish exonyms
**
Greek exonyms
Below is a list of modern-day Greek language exonyms for mostly European places outside of Greece and Cyprus. Place names that are not mentioned are generally referred to in Greek by their respective names in their native languages, or with the c ...
**
Italian exonyms
''Below is list of Italian language exonyms for places in non-Italian-speaking areas of the world''
Albania
Algeria
Australia
Austria
Bangladesh
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Canada
Chile
China
...
**
Portuguese exonyms
**
Icelandic exonyms
The following is a list of Icelandic exonyms, that is to say names for places in Icelandic that have been adapted to Icelandic spelling rules, translated into Icelandic, or Old Norse exonyms surviving in Icelandic. Commonly pronunciation is close ...
**
Romanian exonyms
**
Russian exonyms
**
Slavic toponyms for Greek places
**
Swedish exonyms
Below is list of Swedish language exonyms for places in non-Swedish-speaking areas of the world. Not included are spelling changes and translations of non-proper nouns.
In general
Diacritical marks (such as ´ ` ^ etc above letters) are generall ...
**
Welsh names for other places in Britain and Ireland
* African/Asian/Middle-Eastern/Eurasian exonyms
**
Afrikaans exonyms
**
Arabic exonyms
**
Azerbaijani exonyms
**
Armenian exonyms
**
Chinese exonyms
When a foreign place name, or toponym, occurs in Chinese text, the problem arises of spelling it in Chinese characters, given the limited phonetics and restrictive phonology of Mandarin Chinese (making it very difficult to transcribe loanwords), a ...
**
Japanese exonyms
Japanese exonyms are the names of places in the Japanese language that differ from the name given in the place's dominant language.
While Japanese names of places that are not derived from the Chinese language generally tend to represent the endo ...
**
Turkish exonyms
**
Vietnamese exonyms
See also
*
-onym
The suffix ''-onym'' (from grc, ὄνυμα / name) is a bound morpheme, that is attached to the end of a root word, thus forming a new compound word that designates a particular ''class'' of names. In linguistic terminology, compound words that ...
*
Emic and etic
In anthropology, folkloristics, and the social and behavioral sciences, emic () and etic () refer to two kinds of field research done and viewpoints obtained.
The "emic" approach is an insider's perspective, which looks at the beliefs, values ...
*
Shibboleth
Other lists
*
List of countries and dependencies and their capitals in native languages
*
List of adjectival and demonymic forms of place names
*
List of language names
This article is a resource of the native names of most of the major languages in the world. These are endonymic glossonyms.
Languages
A
Aari – Aari
* Spoken in:
Aasáx † – Aasá
* Spoken in:
Abaza – Aбаза бызшва
* Offici ...
*
List of alternative country names
Most sovereign states have alternative names. Some countries have also undergone name changes for political or other reasons. This article attempts to give all known alternative names and initialisms for all nations, countries, and sovereign sta ...
*
List of country names in various languages
Most countries of the world have different names in different languages. Some countries have also undergone name changes for political or other reasons. This article attempts to give all known alternative names for all nations, countries and sovere ...
*
List of Latin place names in Europe
This list includes European countries and regions that were part of the Roman Empire, or that were given Latin place names in historical references. As a large portion of the latter were only created during the Middle Ages, often based on scholarl ...
*
List of European regions with alternative names
Most regions and provinces of Europe have alternative names in different languages. Some regions have also undergone name changes for political or other reasons. This article attempts to give all known alternative names for all major European re ...
*
List of European rivers with alternative names
All or almost all rivers in Europe have alternative names in different languages. Some rivers have also undergone name changes for political or other reasons. This article provides known alternative names for all major European rivers. It also inc ...
*
List of traditional Greek place names
* List of
Coptic placenames
*
Place names in Irish
The vast majority of placenames in Ireland are anglicisations of Irish language names; that is, adaptations of the Irish names to English phonology and spelling. However, some names come directly from the English language, and a handful come fr ...
*
Names of places in Finland in Finnish and in Swedish
*
List of renamed Indian cities and states
References
Citations
General and cited sources
* Jordan, Peter, Hubert Bergmann, Caroline Burgess, and Catherine Cheetham, eds. 2010 & 2011. "Trends in Exonym Use." ''Proceedings of the 10th UNGEGN Working Group on Exonyms Meeting''. Tainach (28–30 April 2010). Hamburg (2011). ''Name & Place'' 1.
* Jordan, Peter, Milan Orožen Adamič, and Paul Woodman, eds. 2007. "Exonyms and the International Standardisation of Geographical Names." ''Approaches towards the Resolution of an Apparent Contradiction''. Wien and Berlin. ''Wiener Osteuropastudien'' 24.
*
External links
2006 UN document discussing exonyms (PDF)*
ttp://translationdirectory.com/article103.htm "Does Juliet's Rose, by Any Other Name, Smell as Sweet?"by Verónica Albin.
Looking upin exonym database
European geographical names infrastructure and services (EuroGeoNames)UN document describing EuroGeoNames (PDF)World map of country endonyms
{{DEFAULTSORT:Exonym and endonym
Ethnicity
Ethnonyms
Etymology
Geopolitical terminology
Human names
Language naming
Onomastics
Place names
Semantics
Toponymy