Alternate Names of Places: a Worldwide Dictionary
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Alternate Names of Places ALSO BY ADRIAN ROOM AND FROM MCFARLAND African Placenames: Origins and Meanings of the Names for Natural Features, Towns, Cities, Provinces and Countries, 2d ed. (2008) The Pronunciation of Placenames: A Worldwide Dictionary (2007) Nicknames of Places: Origins and Meanings of the Alternate and Secondary Names, Sobriquets, Titles, Epithets and Slogans for 4600 Places Worldwide (2006) Placenames of the World: Origins and Meanings of the Names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features and Historic Sites, 2d ed. (2006) Dictionary of Pseudonyms: ¡¡,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins, 4th ed. (2004) Placenames of France: Over 4,000 Towns, Villages, Natural Features, Regions and Departments (2004; paperback 2009) Encyclopedia of Corporate Names Worldwide (2002; paperback 2008) A Dictionary of Art Titles: The Origins of the Names and Titles of 3,000 Works of Art (2000; paperback 2008) A Dictionary of Music Titles: The Origins of the Names and Titles of 3,500 Musical Compositions (2000; paperback 2008) Literally Entitled: A Dictionary of the Origins of the Titles of Over ¡,300 Major Literary Works of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (¡996; paperback 2009) Placenames of Russia and the Former Soviet Union: Origins and Meanings of the Names for Over 2,000 Natural Features, Towns, Regions and Countries (¡996) The Naming of Animals: An Appellative Reference to Domestic, Work and Show Animals Real and Fictional (¡993) Corporate Eponymy: A Biographical Dictionary of the Persons Behind the Names of Major American, British, European and Asian Businesses (¡992) Alternate Names of Places A Worldwide Dictionary ADRIAN ROOM McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Room, Adrian. Alternate names of places : a worldwide dictionary / Adrian Room. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-7864-3712-2 softcover : 50# alkaline paper 1. Gazetteers. I. Title. G105.R648 2009 910.3—dc22 2009017992 British Library cataloguing data are available ©2009 Adrian Room. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. On the cover: Green hills near Golden Bay, South Island, New Zealand; globe; both ©2009 Shutterstock Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Contents Introduction 1 The Placenames 7 Appendix I: Names of Places in Non-English Languages 235 Appendix II: Fictional Names of Places 246 Select Bibliography 255 v This page intentionally left blank Introduction This new type of geographical diction- not even associated with the place in question. ary lists the alternate names, current and his- Many Soviet places were simply given a gen- torical, by which over 7,000 places in the erally Communist name, typically with the el- world are or have been known. (The actual ement Krasno-, “red,” to reflect the new number of alternate names is nearer 9,000, regime, while others were renamed for Lenin since many places have or had more than one or Stalin without any local connection with such name.) these leaders. Some such renamings remain on For the purposes of this record, an alter- the map today, almost 20 years after the demise nate name is one that bears or bore an official of the Soviet state. or at least a semiofficial status, rather than Ideological renaming of this kind was not being simply a nickname or a colloquial abbre- confined to the USSR, and some towns else- viation. where in the Socialist bloc took on new names, An alternate name may be a respelling, as such as Hungary’s Dunaújváros, which for a when a name is restored to a correct form from decade was Sztálinváros, or the former East a corrupt original, or it may even be in a com- Germany’s Chemnitz, which for almost forty pletely different language, as when one coun- years was on the map as Karl-Marx-Stadt. try is occupied or conquered by another, a fate There were few such renamings in Poland, a that historically befell many European states. country recast with German placenames dur- Not all name changes are the result of ing World War II, but from 1946 to 1992 the hostilities. Sometimes settlers in virgin terri- city of Podgorica in the former Yugoslavia hon- tory find it hard to decide on a suitable name ored the republic’s first president as Titograd. for their place of settlement. There are thus In countries of central and eastern Eu- places in the United States that have under- rope such as these, a new name was often gone more than one change of name, such as based on a previous name, which was either Glen Ellyn, Illinois, which finally arrived at its adapted to the succeeding new language or present name after a run of six successive ear- where possible translated into it. Thus the Slo- lier names. vakian town of Nové Mesto nad Váhom, with The choice of a new name for a place a name meaning “new town on the Váh,” for may be politically motivated, as the hundreds the river on which it lies, was earlier known of towns and villages renamed in the former by the Hungarian name Vágújhely and Ger- Soviet Union. Here two birds were often killed man name Waag-Neustadt, with “new town” with one stone, since an undesirable or polit- translated into the superseding language and ically incorrect name could be abolished and the form of the river name accommodated to replaced with a new politically correct one, it. which often as not bore no relationship to the Many places around the world have roots earlier name. In some cases, a new name was that go deep into history, with an original 1 Introduction 2 name in a now extinct language. Names of exist in tandem, but with English usually biblical origin are often of this type, as are the being the official form. (Irish equivalents for numerous places in the Roman Empire with names in Northern Ireland exist but are gen- Latin names. Such names, marked “Roman” in erally not official. They are included in the the present book rather than “Latin,” in turn dictionary, however. In this respect, care is are often of earlier origin, dating back several needed in differentiating between “northern centuries BC to a defunct language such as an- Ireland,” in the Irish Republic, and “Northern cient Greek or Phoenician. The Roman names Ireland,” as part of the United Kingdom.) In of places in France are thus often Gallo- Wales, English still mostly predominates, but Roman, and based on Gaulish, a Celtic lan- the Welsh names are invariably used in Welsh- guage. language texts, as in the media and official leg- In countries with a colonial heritage there islation. Most places in Scotland have equiv- can be a complete change of language, with a alent Gaelic names (listed in Edward Dwelly’s native name replaced by a European one, itself Illustrated Gaelic-English Dictionary) but in in more recent times either reverting to its in- regular use retain the English forms of their digenous original or assuming a new native names. An exception is the Gaelic-speaking form. Not many European names remain Western Isles, where the town of Stornoway today on the map of Africa, although English now officially appears on maps in its Gaelic names are still a significant presence in coun- guise of Steornabagh, as do most villages and tries such as Australia and New Zealand, de- natural features, including the islands them- spite the prevalence of native names, here re- selves. (Many of these names are not actually spectively Aboriginal and Maori. An Gaelic in origin but Scandinavian, so that the analogous situation exists in the United States Gaelic form is simply a respelling. Stornoway and Canada, where names of European origin itself is one such.) in languages such as English, French, and In the Basque Country of northern Spain Spanish remain widespread on the map and southwestern France, places are now often amongst the numerous Indian names. In known by their Basque names in addition to, South America, and especially Latin America, or instead of, their respective Spanish or Spanish and Portuguese names are visibly in French names. A similar situation applies in evidence today as replacements for historical Brittany, northwestern France, where Breton Indian names. It goes without saying, of names are often bracketed with their French course, that not all European placenames in equivalents, while in Catalonia, northeastern countries with a colonial past are substitutions Spain, Catalan names are now regularly given for native names, as a good number of such pride of place on the map, in acknowledgment names are those of newly-founded settle- of the region’s status as an autonomous com- ments. munity. In Switzerland some places have as In many countries today more than one many as four different forms of name in each language is spoken, so that places officially of the country’s official languages, French, bear two names. Thus, places in Belgium often German, Italian, and Romansh, this last being bear both French and Flemish names, while the local language. places in Ireland are known by an English For the purposes of this dictionary, alter- name and an Irish and places in Wales by an nate current names are often not simply vari- English name and a Welsh. In Belgium, the ant spellings but distinctively different. Thus, official form of the name is usually French in the name of La Guajira, a department of the south and Flemish in the north and east, northeastern Colombia, is also spelled La Goa- while in Ireland the Irish and English names jira and La Goagira, but these are basically one 3 Introduction and the same name, not significant alternates.