Weird Geography #4 - Place Names; Changed

[Shadow]

Many well-known cities have had their name changed over the years, it is not uncommon. Probably the most famous in recent times, i.e. last century, is Saint Petersburg, followed by Istanbul.

Not so well-known, in 1916, the city now called Kitchener in southern Ontario was changed, from Berlin. I imagine that might have upset many of the many german-descended residents.

Do you know of others?

 

[cupcakechef]

Isn't Beijing and Peking one? I thought they used to call it Peking but now it's Beijing...don't quote me on that though I might be wrong!

 

[Duck59]

If you fly to or from St Petersburg, the three-letter code on your ticket says "LED". Therefore, it is still Leningrad as far as the airline industry is concerned. St Petersburg was orginally Petersburg and became Petrograd and Leningrad before reverting.

A lot of places, particularly in Eastern Europe, have changed hands over the years. What was German Danzig is now Polish Gdansk. German Konisburg is now Russian Kaliningrad. Ukrainian cities like Lviv and Kyiv were Lvov and Kiev in Soviet times.

India has also had a spate of renaming: Bombay became Mumbai, Madras Chennai, etc.