An English exonym is a name in the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
for a place (a
toponym
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
), or occasionally other terms, which does not follow the local usage (the
endonym
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, ...
).
Exonyms and endonyms are features of all languages and other languages may have their own exonym for English endonyms, for example ''Llundain'' is the
Welsh exonym
The modern Welsh language contains names for many towns and other geographical features in Great Britain and elsewhere. Names for places outside of Welsh-speaking regions are exonyms, not including spelling or pronunciation adaptions and translati ...
for the English endonym "London".
Romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...
, or
transcription of a non-Latin alphabet endonym into a Latin alphabet, is not generally regarded as creating exonyms; "The application of any scientifically sound romanization system to a non-Roman endonym merely re-creates that original endonym in another legitimate form" (Päll, 2002). However old romanization systems may leave a legacy of "familiar" spellings, as in the case of, for example,
romanization of Burmese. This affects
romanization of Arabic
The romanization of Arabic is the systematic rendering of written and spoken Arabic in the Latin script. Romanized Arabic is used for various purposes, among them transcription of names and titles, cataloging Arabic language works, language e ...
,
romanization of Chinese
Romanization of Chinese () is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Chinese. Chinese uses a logographic script and its characters do not represent phonemes directly. There have been many systems using Roman characters to represent C ...
, and many other non-Latin alphabet place names.
Translations of
non-proper nouns such as "river" and "lake" also do not qualify as exonyms.
A less common form of exonym is usage for names and titles.
Personal exonyms are typically limited to
regnal name
A regnal name, or regnant name or reign name, is the name used by monarchs and popes during their reigns and, subsequently, historically. Since ancient times, some monarchs have chosen to use a different name from their original name when they ...
s such as popes (
John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
) and monarchs (
Charles V Charles V may refer to:
* Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558)
* Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain
* Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise
* Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690)
* Infa ...
); less commonly very well known non-modern authors (
John Calvin
John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...
, for French ''Jean Calvin'') are referred to by exonyms. The list does not include the
list of English translated personal names
__TOC__
This is a list of personal names known in English that are modified from another language and are or were not used among the person themselves.
It does not include:
* aliases, pseudonyms, and stage names (such as the librettist Metastasi ...
.
General
This section lists English-language exonyms that are for places located in multiple countries, English names of countries, and typical patterns.
Countries and territories
The following is a list of countries and territories whose names in local languages differ from their (non-local) English ones. The list includes countries with limited recognition, autonomous territories of sovereign countries, and fully sovereign countries.
Country names are listed in their short form, and do not include names spelled identically in English. Near-identical names in pronunciation or spelling are included, but countries named with non-proper nouns (like
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...
or
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...
) are not.
The languages listed are official languages and/ or prominent local languages, except if the name for the associated country is spelled the same as in English. Languages in ''italics'' are no longer spoken in the given country, but the name listed retains some use.
Likewise, exonyms in ''italics'' are obsolete or are disputed.
Other territories
The following is a list of other territories/regions which are not deemed as countries or sovereign states.
Specific countries
Albania
Algeria
Armenia
Australia
Several places in Australia have additional names in various Aboriginal languages.
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belgium
Historically, English borrowed French names for many places in Dutch-speaking areas of Belgium. With a few exceptions this practice is no longer followed by most sources.
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Canada
Numerous places in the predominantly French speaking province of
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...
have historically had English exonyms; in most cases, the exonym was a straight translation of the place's French name, with only one major city which ever had an English exonym that was entirely different from its original French name. With a few exceptions, such as
Quebec City
Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...
, these are no longer widely used. Exonyms are also commonly seen with regard to
First Nations and
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territorie ...
peoples and communities; although government and media sources have evolved in recent years toward using these places' native endonyms, common usage may still favour the older exonyms.
Cambodia
During the
Khmer Rogue period (1975–1979), the country was known in English as
Democratic Kampuchea
Kampuchea ( km, កម្ពុជា ), officially known as Democratic Kampuchea (DK; km, កម្ពុជាប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ ) from 5 January 1976, was a one-party totalitarian state which encompassed modern-day Camb ...
, closer to the endonym than its modern English exonym. The English exonym of Cambodia is based on the French exonym, ''Cambodge''. The endonym is sometimes used in English, but the exonym is far more common.
Chile
China
Some of the apparent "exonyms" for China are the result of change in
romanization of Chinese
Romanization of Chinese () is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Chinese. Chinese uses a logographic script and its characters do not represent phonemes directly. There have been many systems using Roman characters to represent C ...
to modern
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 fo ...
, for example "Tientsin" to "Tianjin". Other apparent exonyms are the result of the English name being based on one of the other
varieties of Chinese
Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of mai ...
besides Mandarin. Additionally, certain names which may now be considered exonyms actually preserve older Mandarin pronunciations which have changed in the intervening centuries. For all areas in
mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...
, names written in Chinese are written in
simplified characters
Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, as prescribed by the ''Table of General Standard Chinese Characters''. Along with traditional Chinese characters, they are on ...
. For all areas in the
special administrative regions (SARs), the names will be written in
traditional characters
Traditional Chinese characters are one type of standard Chinese character sets of the contemporary written Chinese. The traditional characters had taken shapes since the clerical change and mostly remained in the same structure they took a ...
.
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czechia
Historically, English-language sources used German names for many places in what is now the Czech Republic. With some exceptions (such as the Elbe and Oder rivers- both of which flow into Germany), this is no longer done by most sources.
The Czech government prefers the country to be referred to as ''Czechia'' in English because the country adopted it as its official short name in 2016. However, most English speakers still call the country the Czech Republic.
Denmark
Greenland
Several places were known under Danish names, or a variant of them. Now only the local
Greenlandic is used.
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
This list does not include German place names with
ß written with "ss" or
umlauts being removed in some writing.
Greece
The exonym for Greece in English comes from
Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; the ...
, which was a historical region in Italy colonized by the Greeks. The endonym ''Ellás'' comes from
Helen of Troy
Helen of Troy, Helen, Helena, (Ancient Greek: Ἑλένη ''Helénē'', ) also known as beautiful Helen, Helen of Argos, or Helen of Sparta, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believe ...
, the legendary Greek figure whose abduction caused the Greek
city-state
A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...
s to unite and fight against
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
during the
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans ( Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and ...
.
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
The vast majority of placenames in Ireland are
anglicisation
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 influe ...
s, or
phonetic
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
renderings, of
Irish language
Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...
names. The exceptions to this are listed here:
Israel
The below listing is only a summary. Modern Israeli transcription systems (
romanization of Hebrew
The Hebrew language uses the Hebrew alphabet with optional vowel diacritics. The romanization of Hebrew is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Hebrew words.
For example, the Hebrew name spelled ("Israel") in the Hebrew alphabet ca ...
) vary from the spellings of many hundreds of place names of Ancient Israel adopted by Bible translations - both Christian, such as the King James Version (1611) and also Jewish versions such as the
JPS (1917).
Italy
Japan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Libya
Lithuania
Malaysia
Mexico
Moldova
Mongolia
Morocco
Myanmar
Nepal
Netherlands
Norway
North Korea
Palestine
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Somalia
South Africa
Many South African towns have multiple names due to the number of languages. Additionally, some places have been renamed from English and Afrikaans.
South Korea
Spain
English uses Spanish-language exonyms for some places in non-Spanish speaking regions of Spain.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka was known as
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 ...
in English until 1972.
Sudan
Sweden
Switzerland
Historically, English-language sources borrowed French-language names for some places in German-speaking Switzerland. This is no longer done, and many sources now use German names for most Swiss German-speaking places.
[Bewes, Diccon]
Swiss Watching: Inside the Land of Milk and Honey
p.vii. 2012.
Syria
Thailand
Thailand was known as
Siam
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
in English until the
Siamese revolution of 1932.
Taiwan
The main island of Taiwan is also known in English as
Formosa
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territori ...
. All Chinese names below are written in
traditional characters
Traditional Chinese characters are one type of standard Chinese character sets of the contemporary written Chinese. The traditional characters had taken shapes since the clerical change and mostly remained in the same structure they took a ...
. As mentioned above in the
China section, many place names in Taiwan use either
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 fo ...
or
Wade-Giles.
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
The places listed are where non-English local languages are mainly used or where the non-English names don't regularly correspond to the English one.
United States
Several places in the United States have additional names in various Native languages.
Vietnam
All cities and towns are often spelled without
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...
s; names without them are not listed here.
See also
*
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 ...
*
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
*
List of English exonyms for German toponyms—some no longer current
*
List of renamed Indian public places
Since India gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, names of many cities, streets, places, and buildings throughout the republic of India have been systematically changed, often to better approximate their native endonymic pronunci ...
—some without current acceptance
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:English Exonyms
English language
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...