Place names

“Where is your mother from?” one of my friends once asked another friend.

“She’s from Rhodesia,” answered his friend.

“From where?”

After a bit of research on that marvellous tool that is the Internet, my friend eventually found out that Rhodesia was the former name of Zimbabwe.

This situation is not unique though and confusion can easily arise from places changing name. Where is Moldavia? In a film I saw the other day, they talked about Abyssinia… but where is that? I can’t find Zaire on the map!

Here are the answers to those questions: Moldavia is nowadays known as Moldova, Abyssinia was the former name of Ethiopia, and if you cannot find Zaire on a map any more it is because it was renamed Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997.

Then you might wonder why a place would be renamed. Well, for countries one of the main reasons for changing name is when a country acquires independence. This is the case for Rhodesia which became Zimbabwe in 1980. In these cases the new name can be seen as a new start for the country and its people.

This reason for changing name is also true at city level. For instance, Bombay became Mumbai in 1995 as a way to get over the city’s colonial past.

Regarding cities, they can also be renamed when their status changes. The best examples of this are Beijing which changed names several times before acquiring its current name when the city became the capital of the People’s Republic of China in 1959 (“Beijing” means Northern capital in Chinese), and Tokyo, formerly named Edo, when it became the capital of Japan in 1868 (“Tokyo” means Eastern capital in Japanese).

Some places can change name for eccentric reasons as well. The town of Truth or Consequences in New Mexico for example was formerly called “Hot Springs”. The town changed its name to the current one when in 1950 Ralph Edward, the host of the popular radio program “Truth or Consequences”, said that he would air from the first town to change its name to the name of his show.

However, sometimes places change name but both the new and the old name are still in use. You might wonder which one you should use then. Should you say Bombay or Mumbai? Peking or Beijing? Both are actually correct, it only depends on the context in which you are using them. Thus, you will refer to Bombay Stock Exchange and Bombay High Court but you will use Mumbai when you are talking about the city; and you will say that you have a cousin who studies at Peking University but that you have clients in Beijing.

If you really don’t know whether you are using the right name or not don’t worry too much though: the person who you will be talking to will either not know or will tell you the correct name. By asking, you could also learn some interesting facts regarding where that place name comes from.