Any country can rename cities however they want, they can't erase the fact that they were called something else in the past, and that people remember the previous name.
Saint Petersburg was renamed to Petrograd, then Leningrad and then Saint Petersburg again but when Germans sieged the town in 1941, it was Leningrad.
But if your point is more about how people call them, well you're going down another rabbit hole with me.
Just for Belgium, all the major international cities have a name in the 3 official languages. (Dutch, French and German) : Cairo in Egypt is called Caïro (D), Le Caire (F) and Kairo(G).
There I've never met anyone using "Beijing" for the capital of China, it's always "Pékin"(F) and "Peking"(D). [1] [2]
And within Belgium itself, many towns have their names in the 3 languages; Liège (F), Luik (D) and Lüttich(G).
(But other have only one like Knokke, Dinant or Eupen).
This can lead to many interesting situations, especially with the peculiar linguistic situation in Belgium :
- Anyone speaking their native language will use the name from that language : Mechelen in Dutch, Malines in French and Mecheln in German.
- Speaking in French with a Dutch native, they usually use the Dutch name.
If they are willing to use the French name, they'll switch to it if you didn't catch it in Dutch, otherwise, they'only use the Dutch name. [3]
- Speaking English with a French or Dutch native, they'll use the English name if it's Brussels and their language's name any other time, wherever it's located.
For cities in the Dutch speaking part, French natives will always use Anvers(F) for Antwerpen (D), Gand(F) for Gent(D) (even though it is Ghent in English).
For cities in the French speaking part, Dutch will always use Namen(D) for Namur(F) or Bergen(D) for Mons(F)
- French native often need to specify which city they are talking about when using "Louvain" because it can refer to Leuven or Louvain-la-Neuve.
- And everyone want that cities only be called with the name from their linguistic region... hence the first post that said that it's now called Leuven.
3. Which brings me to my true story of meeting a guy from France that only knew the town Luik and never heard of Liège. Nobody in Liège call it Luik, just like nobody in Leuven call it Louvain.
Saint Petersburg was renamed to Petrograd, then Leningrad and then Saint Petersburg again but when Germans sieged the town in 1941, it was Leningrad.
But if your point is more about how people call them, well you're going down another rabbit hole with me.
Just for Belgium, all the major international cities have a name in the 3 official languages. (Dutch, French and German) : Cairo in Egypt is called Caïro (D), Le Caire (F) and Kairo(G).
There I've never met anyone using "Beijing" for the capital of China, it's always "Pékin"(F) and "Peking"(D). [1] [2]
And within Belgium itself, many towns have their names in the 3 languages; Liège (F), Luik (D) and Lüttich(G). (But other have only one like Knokke, Dinant or Eupen).
This can lead to many interesting situations, especially with the peculiar linguistic situation in Belgium :
- Anyone speaking their native language will use the name from that language : Mechelen in Dutch, Malines in French and Mecheln in German.
- Speaking in French with a Dutch native, they usually use the Dutch name. If they are willing to use the French name, they'll switch to it if you didn't catch it in Dutch, otherwise, they'only use the Dutch name. [3]
- Speaking English with a French or Dutch native, they'll use the English name if it's Brussels and their language's name any other time, wherever it's located. For cities in the Dutch speaking part, French natives will always use Anvers(F) for Antwerpen (D), Gand(F) for Gent(D) (even though it is Ghent in English). For cities in the French speaking part, Dutch will always use Namen(D) for Namur(F) or Bergen(D) for Mons(F)
- French native often need to specify which city they are talking about when using "Louvain" because it can refer to Leuven or Louvain-la-Neuve.
- And everyone want that cities only be called with the name from their linguistic region... hence the first post that said that it's now called Leuven.
1. https://www.lesoir.be/635347/article/2024-11-12/attaque-la-v...
2. https://www.hln.be/economie/china-kondigt-weer-tijdelijke-ma...
3. Which brings me to my true story of meeting a guy from France that only knew the town Luik and never heard of Liège. Nobody in Liège call it Luik, just like nobody in Leuven call it Louvain.