Dual Naming
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Dual naming is the adoption of an official place name that combines two earlier names, or uses both names, often to resolve a disagreement over which of the two individual names is more appropriate. In some cases, the reasons are political. Sometimes the two individual names are from different languages; in some cases this is because the country has more than one official language, and in others, one language has displaced another. In several countries, dual naming has begun to be applied only recently. This has come about in places where a colonial settler community had displaced the indigenous peoples and started using names in the settler language centuries ago, and more recent efforts have been made to use names in the indigenous language alongside the colonial names, as an act of reconciliation.


Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, the name 'Dari' replaced Persian (Farsi) after the 1964 constitution which was the only official language until the approval of the constitution in that year. In addition government also added
Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...
as a fellow official language in the country.


Australia

In Australia, a dual naming policy is often now used officially to name landmarks that are of significance to local
Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...
, but for which the most common name is European. For example, the landmark with the Pitjantjatjara name ''
Uluru Uluru (; ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone monolith. It outcrop, crops out near the centre of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory, south-west of Alice Spri ...
'' and English name Ayers Rock was officially named ''Uluru / Ayers Rock'' in 1993, although in practice, people in the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park refer to it as Uluru. In the city of
Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
, the Adelaide City Council began the process of dual naming all of the city squares, each of the parks making up the parklands which surround the
Adelaide city centre Adelaide city centre () is the inner city locality of Adelaide, Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals simply as "the City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaide and from the City of Adelaide l ...
and North Adelaide, and other sites of significance to the Kaurna people (the "Adelaide tribe") in 1997. The naming process, which assigned an extra name in the Kaurna language to each place, was mostly completed in 2003, and the renaming of 39 sites finalised and endorsed by the council in 2012. Examples include Victoria Square / Tarntanyangga, Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka, and River Torrens / Karrawirra Parri. The Cocos (Keeling) Islands had their official dual name attested from 1916; it was made official with the ''Cocos (Keeling) Islands Act 1955''.


Finland

In Finland, many towns have two names, one in Finnish and one in Swedish (the two official languages of the country). The two names are considered equally correct but are not used as a formal duality of names.


France and Switzerland

The official names of bilingual areas of
Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, and
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
also apply. For instance, the German and French Swiss town of Biel/Bienne is the combination of its German name (Biel) and its French name (Bienne).


Hong Kong

During the British colonisation of Hong Kong, some places were given new English names, while the original Chinese name were also retained officially. For example, Stanley is called "''Chek Chue''" (赤柱; lit: Red Pillar) in Chinese. This causes a same place to have completely different names with different etymologies in English and Chinese. Similarly, roads may be also separately named in the two languages. E.g. Queensway is known as 金鐘道 in Chinese (lit. Golden Bell Road) Meanwhile, some places' English names may be calques or literal translations of their Chinese equivalents. E.g. Sandy Ridge ( Chinese: 沙嶺)


New Zealand

Some places in New Zealand have dual Māori and English names, such as Aoraki / Mount Cook. The practice of officially giving certain New Zealand places dual names began in the 1920s, but dual names have become much more common in the 1990s and 2000s, in part due to Treaty of Waitangi settlements.


Northern Ireland

"Derry/Londonderry" has been used unofficially to circumvent the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, in which Irish nationalists used "Derry" and Ulster unionists use "Londonderry" for the
city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
and
county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
. The "Derry stroke Londonderry" spoken form of this has in turn engendered the city's nickname "Stroke City".


Romania

In
Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
, the cities of Turnu Severin and Cluj were renamed Drobeta-Turnu Severin in 1972 and
Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...
in 1974, respectively, for political reasons, as the communist government wanted to emphasize the cities' Roman origins.


Spain

Another example of the phenomenon can be seen in the name of the capital of the Spanish Basque Country,
Vitoria-Gasteiz Vitoria-Gasteiz (; ; also historically spelled Vittoria in English) is the seat of government and the capital city of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country and of the provinces of Spain, province of Álava in northern Spain. I ...
. This combines the city's Spanish name of Vitoria and
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 ...
name of Gasteiz.


United States

The Denali–Mount McKinley naming dispute is an example of a dual naming issue in the United States.


Border geographical features

A special problem occurs when the landmark lies on the border between two or more countries. For example,
Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...
has several different names used locally.


See also

* Bilingual tautological names * List of dual place names in New Zealand * Names of places in Finland in Finnish and in Swedish


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dual Naming Alternative place names Concepts in language policy Naming controversies