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The Greek state has systematically replaced geographical and topographic names of non-Greek origin with
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
names as part of a policy and ideology of
Hellenization Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in ...
. The main objective of the initiative has been to assimilate or hide geographical or topographical names that were deemed foreign and divisive against Greek unity or considered to be "bad Greek". The names that were considered foreign were usually of Albanian, Slavic, and Turkish origin. Most of the name changes occurred in the Arvanite settlements in central Greece and, after the
Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and def ...
, in the ethnically heterogeneous northern Greece. Place names of Greek origin were also renamed after names in
Classical Greece Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Marti ...
. The policy commenced after the independence of Greece from the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
in the early 1830s, after the territorial expanses of Greece and continued into the Greek Republic. To this day use of the old Albanian, Slavic, or Turkish placenames by authorities, organisations, and individuals is penalized under Greek law.


History

The area that is today Greece was inhabited by various peoples throughout history, and the country's toponyms reflect their diversity of origins. The hellenization of toponyms in Greece started soon after
Greek independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...
. Many placenames in Greece of non-Greek origin were replaced by ancient names that were supposed to have some connection to the area. For example, the ancient name of
Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saroni ...
was revived in the 19th century, after it had been called Drakos in Greek, Porto Leone in Venetian, and Aslan Limanı in Turkish for centuries, after the Piraeus Lion which stood there. In 1909, the existence of large numbers of non Greek place names were a nuisance to the government. In 1909 the government-appointed commission on toponyms report that every one village in three in Greece (30% of the total) should have its name changed (of the 5,069 Greek villages, 1,500 were considered as "speaking a barbaric language". During the
Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and def ...
, Greece doubled its territory and population, but it brought various large non-Greek populations into its border. Notably were the Slavic speaking Orthodox, the mostly Turkish-speaking Muslims from Macedonia, the Muslim Albanians, Orthodox Arvanites and
Aromanians The Aromanians ( rup, Armãnji, Rrãmãnji) are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern and c ...
in Epirus. After the
Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 ( O.S.) / 29 (N.S.) June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies ...
against Bulgaria in 1913 the majority of Slavic speaking Christians was transferred to Bulgaria as part of a population exchange agreement (
Treaty of Neuilly The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine (french: Traité de Neuilly-sur-Seine) required Bulgaria to cede various territories, after Bulgaria had been one of the Central Powers defeated in World War I. The treaty was signed on 27 November 1919 at Neuill ...
) between the two countries. Moreover, after the end of Graeco-Turkish War and the subsequent
Treaty of Lausanne The Treaty of Lausanne (french: Traité de Lausanne) was a peace treaty negotiated during the Lausanne Conference of 1922–23 and signed in the Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 July 1923. The treaty officially settled the confl ...
and
population exchange between Greece and Turkey The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey ( el, Ἡ Ἀνταλλαγή, I Antallagí, ota, مبادله, Mübâdele, tr, Mübadele) stemmed from the " Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at ...
, all Muslims except Western Thrace, were exchanged for all Orthodox in Turkey except for those in Istanbul. The villages of the exchanged populations (Bulgarians and Muslims) in Greece were resettled with Greeks from Asia Minor, and the Balkans (mainly from Bulgaria and Yugoslavia). By 1928, Greece's demography had drastically changed from the position in 1830: the country had turned into a nation-state, non-Greeks and most of the population spoke Greek. The Arvanites and Aromanians today mostly proclaim themselves as Greeks. After World War II the remaining Muslim Albanians were expelled due to collaboration activity and war crimes. After the departure of Slav and Muslim populations in 1912-1926 the Greek government renamed many places with revived ancient names, local Greek-language names, or translations of the non-Greek names and non-Greek names were officially removed.Bintliff, "The Ethnoarchaeology of a 'Passive' Ethnicity", in K.S. Brown and Yannis Hamilakis, ''The Usable Past: Greek Metahistories'', Lexington Books, 2003, p. 138 "This denial of the multiethnic composition of the rural landscape has been helped by state-imposed systematic place-name changes throughout this century, many as late as the 1960s, through which a wonderful scatter of traditional Greek, Slav, Albanian, and sometimes Italian village names has been suppressed—wherever conceivable—in favor of the name of any ancient Greek toponym remotely connected to the neighborhood. Although the bulk of the population was Greek the renaming was considered a way to establish a collective ethnic consciousness. Several historical Greek names from Asia Minor were also introduced in the region mainly by the resettled refugees. Many
Demotic Greek Demotic Greek or Dimotiki ( el, Δημοτική Γλώσσα, , , ) is the standard spoken language of Greece in modern times and, since the resolution of the Greek language question in 1976, the official language of Greece. "Demotic Greek" (w ...
names were also replaced by a
Katharevousa Katharevousa ( el, Καθαρεύουσα, , literally "purifying anguage) is a conservative form of the Modern Greek language conceived in the late 18th century as both a literary language and a compromise between Ancient Greek and the contempo ...
Greek form, usually different only morphologically. This process started in 1926 and continued into the 1960s.


Name changes by region

The older name forms of the renamed settlements were mainly of
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, Slavic, Turkish, Aromanian or Albanian origin. Other names that were considered foreign were also of
Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...
and
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...
origins. According to ongoing research being carried out at the Institute of Neohellenic Research in Athens, between 1913 and 1996, the names of 4,413 settlements were legally changed in Greece. In each case, the renamings were recorded in the official
Government Gazette A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bulletin) is a periodical publication that has been authorised to publish public or legal notices. It is usually establis ...
. The regional breakdown in renamings is: Macedonia: 1,805 renamings;
Peloponnese The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridge whi ...
: 827 renamings;
Central Greece Continental Greece ( el, Στερεά Ελλάδα, Stereá Elláda; formerly , ''Chérsos Ellás''), colloquially known as Roúmeli (Ρούμελη), is a traditional geographic region of Greece. In English, the area is usually called Central ...
: 519 renamings;
Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...
: 487 renamings;
Epirus sq, Epiri rup, Epiru , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Historical region , image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg , map_alt = , map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinric ...
: 454 renamings;
Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to th ...
: 98 renamings;
Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...
: 97 renamings; Aegean Islands: 79 renamings; Ionian Islands: 47 renamings.


Central Greece

Eastern Central Greece was home to the
Arvanite Arvanites (; Arvanitika: , or , ; Greek: , ) are a bilingual population group in Greece of Albanian origin. They traditionally speak Arvanitika, an Albanian language variety, along with Greek. Their ancestors were first recorded as settler ...
s, an Albanian speaking people who migrated to the area in the 14th century. Until the 19th century some parts of
Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
and
Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its ...
was populated by Arvanites, many of the placenames were also Arvanite, after the establishment of Greece in 1830 most of the names have been changed, especially to names unused since antiquity, from
Classical Greece Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Marti ...
.


Epirus

Epirus had a Greek majority population before annexation to Greece (1913), with minorities of
Aromanians The Aromanians ( rup, Armãnji, Rrãmãnji) are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern and c ...
and Albanians. A part of the Albanian minority, known as
Cham Albanians Cham Albanians or Chams ( sq, Çamë; el, Τσάμηδες, ''Tsámidhes''), are a sub-group of Albanians who originally resided in the western part of the region of Epirus in northwestern Greece, an area known among Albanians as Chameria. Th ...
, resided in the coastal area and were expelled from the area after World War II by the
EDES The National Republican Greek League ( el, Εθνικός Δημοκρατικός Ελληνικός Σύνδεσμος (ΕΔΕΣ), ''Ethnikós Dimokratikós Ellinikós Sýndesmos'' (EDES)) was one of the major resistance groups formed during t ...
resistance group. An unknown number of Aromanians and Orthodox Albanians, in some sources called Arvanites, still live in the area, who today identify mostly as Greek. Particularly in the early 20th-century Albanian place names of
Epirus sq, Epiri rup, Epiru , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Historical region , image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg , map_alt = , map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinric ...
have been systematically changed to Greek, thereby erasing the former Albanian presence in the landscape.


Greek region of Macedonia

Till 1912, the area had a very heterogeneous population consisting of Slavic, Turkish, Greek,
Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites"" ...
and
Aromanians The Aromanians ( rup, Armãnji, Rrãmãnji) are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern and c ...
and
Megleno-Romanians The Megleno-Romanians, also known as Meglenites ( ruq, Miglinits), Moglenite Vlachs or simply Vlachs ( ruq, Vlaș), are a small Eastern Romance people, originally inhabiting seven villages in the Moglena region spanning the Pella and Kilkis re ...
. Most of the geographical names were of non Greek origin, the Greek government planned to change this. Between 1913 and 1928 the Slavic names of hundreds of villages and towns were Hellenized by a Committee for the Changing of Names, which was charged by the Greek government with ''"the elimination of all the names which pollute and disfigure the beautiful appearance of our fatherland"''. Between 1912 (
Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and def ...
) and 1928 (after the
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey ( el, Ἡ Ἀνταλλαγή, I Antallagí, ota, مبادله, Mübâdele, tr, Mübadele) stemmed from the " Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at ...
), the non Greek inhabitants were largely gone and instead of them Greek refugees from the Ottoman Empire settled in the area thereby changing its demography. Toponym changes in each modern prefecture are listed in, *
Drama Prefecture Drama ( el, Περιφερειακή Ενότητα Δράμας, ''Perifereiakí Enótita Drámas'') is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace. Its capital is the town of Drama. The regional unit ...
* Florina Prefecture * Grevena Prefecture * Imathia Prefecture *
Kavala Prefecture Kavala Prefecture ( el, Νομός Καβάλας) was one of the prefectures of Greece. Its capital was Kavala. It was established in 1915, soon after its territory was incorporated into Greece in the Balkan Wars. The prefecture was disbanded on 1 ...
* Pella Prefecture *
Pieria Prefecture Pieria ( el, Πιερία) is one of the regional units of Greece located in the southern part of the Region of Central Macedonia, within the historical province of Macedonia. Its capital is the town of Katerini.The name Pieria originates from t ...
*
Xanthi Prefecture Xanthi (, el, Περιφερειακή ενότητα Ξάνθης, Turkish: İskeçe) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace. The capital is Xanthi. Together with the regional units Rhodop ...


Western Greece


Western Thrace

Since 1977 all Turkish village names of
Western Thrace Western Thrace or West Thrace ( el, �υτικήΘράκη, '' ytikíThráki'' ; tr, Batı Trakya; bg, Западна/Беломорска Тракия, ''Zapadna/Belomorska Trakiya''), also known as Greek Thrace, is a Geography, geograp ...
have been changed to Greek names. Western Thrace is home to a large Turkish minority.


See also

*
Prontuario dei nomi locali dell'Alto Adige The Prontuario dei nomi locali dell'Alto Adige (Italian for ''Reference Work of Place Names of Alto Adige'') is a list of Italianized toponyms for mostly German place names in South Tyrol (''Alto Adige'' in Italian) which was published in 1916 by ...
, a massive renaming of German toponyms in the Austrian territory annexed by Italy after World War I (today's
South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...
) *
Commission for the Determination of Place Names The Commission for the Determination of Place Names ( pl, Komisja Ustalania Nazw Miejscowości) was a commission of the Polish Department of Public Administration, founded in January 1946. Its mission was the establishment of toponyms for places, ...
, massive renaming of toponyms in the territory annexed by Poland after World War II


References


Further reading

*Kyramargiou, E., Papakondylis, Y., Scalora, F., & Dimitropoulos, D. (2021). Changing the Map in Greece and Italy: Place-name Changes in the Nineteenth Century. ''The Historical Review/La Revue Historique'', 17, 205-250. doi:https://doi.org/10.12681/hr.27072 * *


External links

* For a comprehensive list and database of place name changes in Greece (by settlement, date and year of change), se
Institute for Neo Hellenic Research: Name Changes of Settlements in Greece
* {{cite web , url=http://pandektis.ekt.gr/dspace/handle/10442/4968 , title=Pandektis: Name Changes of Settlements in Greece , access-date=2016-11-30 List compiled by th

Geography of Greece Greek nationalism
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
Greek culture Place name etymologies Former toponyms in Greece Names of places in Greece Society of Greece Discrimination in Greece