View Full Version : Cities with two names?


DrJekyll
June 18th, 2005, 04:44 PM
Which cities have two or more official names in different languages? I m not talking about translations into other languages (f.ex. London is "Londres" in Spanish) but about official names, for example Dublin is also Baile Athá Cliath, Brussels is Brussel in Flamish, Bruxelles in French and Brüssel in German, the three of them official languages in Belgium. In Spain there are several, one of them is Bilbao, which is called Bilbo in Basque. Do you know any other case?

schmidt
June 18th, 2005, 04:49 PM
Finnish / Swedish

Helsinki / Helsingfors
Tampere / Tammerfors
Turku / Abo
Lahti / Lahtis
Porvoo / Borga
Oulu / Uleabors

Monkey
June 18th, 2005, 04:57 PM
Yerushalaim(hebrew) Jerusalem(english) Al Quds(arabic)

Klima
June 18th, 2005, 05:04 PM
Apart from Bilbao, other examples of cities with basque/spanish names are:

Basque/Spanish

Donostia/San Sebastián
Iruña/Pamplona
Pasaia/Pasajes
Errenteria/Rentería
Altsasu/Alsasua
Hondarribia/Fuenterrabía
Trapagaran/Valle de Trápaga
Laudio/Llodio

... etc

There is another city, the administrative capital of the Basque Autonomous Community, which has only one official name, which is formed by both the basque and spanish names: Vitoria-Gasteiz (spanish-basque). Two different names in two different languages united in one single official name.

In the French basque side, the main cities are:

Basque/French

Angelu/Anglet
Baiona/Bayonne
Donibane Garazi/Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port
Donibane Lohitzun/Saint-Jean-De-Luz
Maule/Mauléon
Miarritze/Biarritz

DetoX
June 18th, 2005, 05:09 PM
(maybe some countries)

Eng / Pol

Italy / Włochy
Germany / Niemcy
Spain / Hiszpania

Weird, isn`t it?

Anymodal
June 18th, 2005, 05:49 PM
just the typical ones

mumbai - bombay

kolkatta-calcutta

Gingerblokey
June 18th, 2005, 05:49 PM
Colonge -- Köln
Munich -- Munchen

Im not sure whether these clasify as translations

Azn_chi_boi
June 18th, 2005, 06:14 PM
sao paulo= St. Paul... :)

Bikkel
June 18th, 2005, 06:26 PM
In NL Den Haag = 's Gravenhage = La Haye = The Hague; the latter two leaving out the 'count' bit as a matter of fact. Same accounts for Den Bosch = 's Hertogenbosch = Bois-le-Duc while for the catholic carnival each year the city is temporarily renamed to Oeteldonk.

PC
June 18th, 2005, 07:35 PM
Finnish / Swedish

Helsinki / Helsingfors
Tampere / Tammerfors
Turku / Abo
Lahti / Lahtis
Porvoo / Borga
Oulu / Uleabors

Finland is bilingual so most cities here have official names in both Finnish and Swedish, so let's continue :D :bash:

Vantaa / Vanda
Espoo / Esbo
Vaasa / Vasa
Maarianhamina / Mariehamn
Tammisaari / Ekenäs
Mikkeli / St.Michels
Kokkola / Karleby
Hanko / Hangö
Pori / Björneborg
Hämeenlinna / Tavastehus
Järvenpää / Träskända
Kerava / Kervo
Pietarsaari / Jakobstad
Loviisa / Lovisa
Lappeenranta / Villmanstrand
Hamina / Fredrikshamn
Hyvinkää / Hyvinge
Lohja / Lojo

I'll stop here as the rest I can think of are just small unimportant towns

railway stick
June 18th, 2005, 07:35 PM
I live in a bilingual province of the Netherlands. Dutch official name for my city is LEEUWARDEN, the Frisian inhabitants talk about LJOUWERT, even older people in the city are still pronouncing LIWADDEN. Throughout the ages Leeuwarden has `used` about 700 names, worth mentioning in the Guinness Book of Records. Leeuwarden is situated about 90 miles northeast of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (92ooo inh.).

defi
June 18th, 2005, 08:13 PM
German / French

Genf / Genève
Basel / Bâle
Sitten / Sion
Neuenburg / Neuchâtel
Pruntrut / Porrentruy
Biel / Bienne

the usual stuff from Switzerland

Bitxofo
June 19th, 2005, 04:11 AM
Pekin/Beijing.

Aachen in German=Aix-la-Chapelle in French=Aken in Dutch=Aquisgrán in Spanish=Aquisgrana in Italian.

Liège in French=Lüttich in German=Leuk in Deutch=Lieja in Spanish.

HirakataShi
June 19th, 2005, 04:25 AM
Durban - eThekwini (zulu) Thekong (Sotho)
Port Elizabeth - iBhayi (Xhosa)
Bloemfontaine - Mangaung (Sotho)
Pretoria - Tshwane (sotho)
Johannesburg - iGoli (xhosa) eGoli (zulu) Gauteng (sotho)
Cape Town - iKapa (xhosa, zulu, sotho)
East London - iMonti (xhosa, sotho)

Monkey
June 19th, 2005, 08:20 AM
Portuguese - English - French - Spanish

Lisboa - Lisbon - Lisbonne - Lisboa
Porto - Oporto - Porto - Oporto

DrJekyll
June 19th, 2005, 08:49 AM
Durban - eThekwini (zulu) Thekong (Sotho)
Port Elizabeth - iBhayi (Xhosa)
Bloemfontaine - Mangaung (Sotho)
Pretoria - Tshwane (sotho)
Johannesburg - iGoli (xhosa) eGoli (zulu) Gauteng (sotho)
Cape Town - iKapa (xhosa, zulu, sotho)
East London - iMonti (xhosa, sotho)


mm that's very interesting, I didn´t know about this.

DrJekyll
June 19th, 2005, 08:49 AM
ad-Dār al-Bayḍāʼ - Casablanca

edsg25
June 19th, 2005, 12:02 PM
may one assume the lack of american cities on this list is due to our much shorter history than that of europe and other world cities? it almost sounds like these name differences are based on different groups of being knowing these cities by different names over a long period of time.

Monkey
June 19th, 2005, 04:48 PM
hebrew;
atuna=athens
zarfat=france
sfarad=spain
yavan=greece
Vilna=Vilnius
Lita=Lithuania

kebabmonster
June 19th, 2005, 08:22 PM
The United Kingdom has a few as well.

Londonderry/Derry/Doire
Belfast/Beal Feirste
Armagh/Ard Mhacha

(there are numerous Irish/English ones)

Same for Welsh, e.g. Wrexham/Wrecsam

In England, you've also got Kingston upon Hull/Hull.

Küsel
June 19th, 2005, 08:30 PM
German / French

Genf / Genève
Basel / Bâle
Sitten / Sion
Neuenburg / Neuchâtel
Pruntrut / Porrentruy
Biel / Bienne

the usual stuff from Switzerland
Fribourg/Freiburg - and most other towns in this bilingue canton
Solothurn/Soleure
Delemont/Delsberg

also mountains and lakes have two names: Lago Maggiore/Langensee, Gotthard/San Gottardo etc.

kebabmonster
June 19th, 2005, 08:34 PM
Germany also has many bilingual town names in the East, due to the Sorb minority who reside in Saxony/Brandenburg. Cottbus is something like Chozebus. I can't be frigged looking up the right spellings/other examples.

Chemitz/Karl-Marx Stadt
Eisenhüttenstadt/Stalinstadt

jmancuso
June 19th, 2005, 08:46 PM
they are just the names in other languages, ex.

new york (english) = nueva york (spanish)

DrJekyll
June 19th, 2005, 08:57 PM
they are just the names in other languages, ex.

new york (english) = nueva york (spanish)

Nova Iorque in Portuguese

kebabmonster
June 19th, 2005, 09:00 PM
They are official names of those places (i.e. both appear on maps, government documents, etc) unlinke New York and it's spanish equivalent, which is a mere translation

DrJekyll
June 19th, 2005, 09:01 PM
also mountains and lakes have two names: Lago Maggiore/Langensee, Gotthard/San Gottardo etc.

This is interesting too. It's offtopic but I also find interesting the different names for the river Danube in the different countries where it passes. Donau in German, Dunare in Romanian, Dunaj in Slovak, Dunav in Serbocroatian and Bulgarian and Dunay in Ukrainian.

DrJekyll
June 19th, 2005, 09:03 PM
^ hmmm I wonder how it is in Hungarian.

centralized pandemonium
June 19th, 2005, 09:05 PM
From India

English/ Hindi(or local language)

Baroda / Vadodara

Ahemdabad /Amdavad

Madras / Chennai

Cochin / Kochi

Pondicherry / Pudhucherry

Anniyan
June 19th, 2005, 09:06 PM
English .... Tamil

Madras = Chennai

Pondicherry = Pudhuchery

Trichy = Thiruchirapali

Tanjore = Thanjavur

Port Nova = Parangipettai

Ooty = Udhagamandalam