Istanbul (Not Constantinople): Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Even old New York was once New Amsterdam!

''Why they changed it I can't say

 

Whenever there's a fantastic Earth, or a world like our own yet very different, it's a safe bet that the author has messed with the names. Renaming things and places after what they ''could'' have been called is a very effective way to bring a touch of the exotic into the mundane, be it in [[The Time of Myths]] (Hyperborea for Greenland, Avalon for England), [[After the End]] ([[Gaia's Lament|Amazon Desert]], Empire of Denver, [[Divided States of America|Whatever States of America]]), [[Alternate History]] or in another dimension.

 

 

Best not to think about it too hard when characters from these different worlds meet, though. What are the chances, after all, that those two universes happen to have alternatively named or defined locations while maintaining a mutually intelligible language? ([[Please Select New City Name|Pretty damn likely, actually]])

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* The Britannian Empire in ''[[Code Geass]]'', which encompasses a chunk of what used to be [[The British Empire]]. (Notably without Britain itself, but with ''the entirety of the Americas'' to make up for it.)

** He does recognize the language being spoken at the school as French, however.

* Albion for England in ''[[Trinity Blood]]''. The capital is called Londinium, the Latin name for London.

* ''[[Strike Witches]]'' seems to exist in a universe where most European countries kept the names they had as Roman provinces. Britain, for example, is "Britannia". France is "Gallia", Spain is "Hispania", etc. However, some countries have somewhat nonsensical names (Germany is "Karlsland", the Scandinavian countries are "Baltland", and they just got lazy with '''O'''''russia''). Somewhat justified with Suomus, Ostmark, Venazia and Romagna (Finland, Austria-Hungary, North and South Italy), which are based on either historical names for the countries, or the names of the countries in their native languages. Italy, oddly enough, was never unified and Venice still seems to hold some of its territories in Eastern Europe. Liberion is a pun on "Liberty", and is an alternate-USA, and Fuso is the Japanese pronunciation of "Fusang", an ancient Chinese name for Japan. Introduced in other works is "Faraway Land" for Canada, and "Neue Karlsland" for South America. [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/StrikeWitchesWorldMap.JPG Here's a map] for reference.

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[Batman]]'': Gotham City, since Gotham is an old name for New York. There was a 19th-century book which, playing on American jealousy of European cities which liked to boast about their hundreds of years of history, was a fictional history of NYC, giving it the name "Gotham". Whether or not Gotham City ''is'' New York in the comics has varied through the years; currently, they're different cities in-universe, but writers still play with parallels.

*** Of course as far as [[The Dark Knight Trilogy|Christopher Nolan]] is concerned, Gotham is actually [[The Windy City|Chicago]].

* In, Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes mini-series, It featured a [[Steampunk]] version of the team known as The X-Society that's based in New Portsmouth, New Albion; a version of San Fransisco where California was colonised by the British, rather than the Spanish.

* The first arc of ''[[Kingdom]]'' takes place in the 'cold place', Anarchticy - that's Antarctica to you and me. Subsequent stories visit Tazzy Island and Auxtralia.

* ''[[Nikolai Dante]]'' mentioned Britannia and Amerika.

* The ''[[Squadron Supreme]]'' limited series played this trope to the hilt, with ''every'' geographic location renamed from its real-life counterpart. Mt. Rushmore becomes Presidents' Mountain, New York City is Cosmopolis in the state of New Troy, Washington D.C. becomes Capitol City, Magelland, and on and on and on.

== Fan Works ==

* In ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', in their quest for the first piece of the Vasyn, the four are sent to the city of New Zork on an alternate Earth. Locations there include Crooklyn and Harvem, the latter being the ghetto for the harveys, human-sized intelligent rabbits. The US is called Ameriga; England is Angland. And much to their dismay, though it's 1954, the Beagles have just arrived....

 

== Film ==

* ''The Signal'' is set in Terminus, which used to be the name of Atlanta, Georgia, the city the movie is filmed in.

* In ''Star Wars'', this trope is played straight ludicrously many times with Coruscant, the capital planet of the 25,000-year-old [[The Federation|Galactic Re]][[The Republic|public]]. When the [[The Emperor|Galactic Emperor]] [[Evil Overlord|Palpatine]] takes over, it's renamed Imperial Centre. Later, it's seized back by the rising [[The Federation|New Republic]], which renames it Coruscant again. Then [[The Empire]] takes it back ''again'' under the reborn, [[Grand Theft Me]]-happy Palpatine, followed by yet another New Republic takeover. Next, the [[Alien Invasion|invading]] [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Yuuzhan Vong]] rename it Yuuzhan'tar after their lost homeworld. Then the Galactic Alliance, formed from the remnants of the destroyed New Republic, defeats the Yuuzhan Vong and calls it Coruscant again… and THEN Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire takes over. Guess what happens—go on, guess.

 

== Literature ==

* [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''Alvin Maker'' series is set in an alternate North America. Many names remain familiar, but are in variant spellings, such as "Hio," "Irrakwa" and "Wobbish." All these are originally Native American words, and the familiar forms are transliterations by Francophone explorers. In this world, the Anglophones seemingly got there first, so the transliterations are a bit different.

* In the ''[[Kushiel's Legacy]]'' series by Jacqueline Carey, the maps at the beginnings of the book show that it is Europe. The UK is named Alba, Ireland is Eire, Spain is Aragonia, Germany and the northern lands are Skaldia, Italy is Caerdicca Unitas - Venice, or a suspiciously Venetian city, is [[City of Canals|La Serenissima]] - the Balkans are Illyria, Greece is Hellas, Egypt and the Maghreb is Menekhet, India is Bhodistan, China is Ch'in, Japan is the Empire of the Sun, Jebe-Barkal is Ethiopia and a bit more, The Flatlands are The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, Vralia is Russia and Drujan and Khebel-im-Akkad are different parts of Ancient Persia. France is called Terre d'Ange (literally Land of Angels) but that's because it's the land of [[Mary Sue]]s for [[Backstory]] reasons.

** For that matter, it isn't specified whether all of these are actually [[Washington DC]] under different names. The capital could be located elsewhere.

* Thomas Hardy set all his novels in his native region of southwest England but with most placenames changed; he called it [[wikipedia:File:Wessex.png|Wessex]].

* The ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' books and related materials, set in what was constructed to be a feasible vanished age. Scandinavia is not called Jotunheim, but it's called Vanaheim and Asgard, which isn't better. Robert E. Howard claimed things to be the other way around: the different mythological names of people and places he mentions were 'corrupted' over time, becoming the myths we know of today.

* Fiona Patton's ''Tales of the Branion Realm'' is set in an alternate Britain named Branion, with a similar map. Since the series focuses on nobility, many of the original names can be determined from the titles. For example, the heir to the throne is the Prince of Gwyneth (Wales) and Duke of Kraburn. If it wasn't obvious from the map that Kraburn is Cornwall, Kraburn has a major port named Halmouth (Falmouth). The second in line to the throne is the Duke of Yorbourne, which from the map clearly represents York. Other countries include Gallia, Danelind, and Tiberia (home to the Pontiff of a Catholic-analogue religion).

** ''The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump'': This [[Magitek]] novel is set in Angels City, on the coast of the Peaceful Ocean, and just north of the Barony of Orange. On the East Coast of the Confederated Provinces are the District of St. Columba and the city of New Jorvik.

** His more traditional alternate history novels feature this too, mainly for objects—nukes become "exploding-metal bombs" (in the [[Worldwar]]/Colonization series) or "superbombs" and "sunbombs" (Timeline-191), suicide bombers become "people bombs," the Molotov cocktail is the "Featherston Fizz," and the Army's heavily armored frontline combat vehicles are "barrels," not tanks.

** His ''War Between the Provinces'' series is basically a retelling of the American Civil War in the West from Chickamauga on, only with the map reversed (the rebels are in the north), the colors reversed (because indigo is a major rebel product) and with names either given alternates or horrid puns. General Rosecrans is renamed "Guildenstern." Chickamauga is renamed "The River of Death," and Lookout Mountain, "Sentry Peak." Georgia becomes "Peachtree," and Selma, Alabama is renamed "Hayek."

** [[Harry Turtledove]] and Richard Dreyfus do this in ''The Two Georges'' with Boston, Oregon (rejected in real life by a coin flip; you probably know the city as Portland).

* In John Flanagan's [[Ranger's Apprentice]], this is used rather stylishly, for example: Araluen = England, Gallica = France, Celtica = Wales, Hibernia = Ireland, Picta = Scotland, Teutlandt = Germany, Arrida = North Africa (Tripoli or Egypt), Skandia = Scandinavia, Nihon-Ja = Japan, Iberion = Spain, Toscana = Rome/Italy, the unnamed Temujai country = Mongolia (Genghis Khan's name was Temijin), Indus (briefly mentioned in Book 10) probably = India, etc.

 

* For no explained reason, London is "Londinium" in the Adam West-era ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]''. And its police headquarters is New Ireland Yard.

** DC Comics at the time (and mostly to this day, at least for US cities) didn't generally use real city names; apparently, this carried over to TV as well.

* Albion pops up in ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'', though since it's Arthurian legend-based, it's justified.

 

 

* ''Damnation Decade'', a Green Ronin d20 System RPG based on tropes from 1970's sci-fi TV and movies, renames ''everything'': America gets the slight change to Americo, Gordon Lightfoot and Edmund Fitzgerald get their names swapped, and then it gets weird (Richard Nixon becomes "Stanton Spobeck," for one).

* ''Tribe 8'' may be the weirdest example. The game takes place [[After the End]] when a bunch of [[Cosmic Horror]]s have descended from the sky and humans are organized in tribes around "Fatimas", avatars of the Goddess. The game takes place in the land of Vimary... which was once ''Montreal'' (founded in real life under the name Ville-Marie).

 

== Video Games ==

* The ''[[2027]]'' [[Game Mod|mod]] for ''[[Deus Ex]]'' features the Russian '''Con'''federation.

* The ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' series. Features Spielburg (Germanic town), Mordavia (Transylvania), Silmaria (Greece), Shapeir (Middle East), and Fricana (Africa). Scandinavia is called Jotunheim, but has the justification of having actual Jotuns.

* ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'' has [[Wutai|its own version of Japan]] named Yamato.

* ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'' has pretty much the Earth itself but with different names, such as Apotos for Greece, Holoska for Alaska, Empire City for New York, and Chun-Nan for China.

 

== Web Comics ==

* ''Sorcery101'' takes place in an alternate universe, wherein the territory that is our United Kingdom is called Terra, China appears to be called Sipan and the USA and Canada are a single country known as the UPH.

* ''[[Fan Dan Go]]'' is set in an alternate England known as Anglise. Its capital city is Londinium, and the city of Lonchester is rather larger than the [[Real Life]] Lancaster.

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[Decades of Darkness]]'' has this: Knoxville, TN is the new * US capital Columbia, Equador is northern Brazil, New England is a much more extensive term, and colonial cities across Africa, Australia, Asia and the Americas have different names.

** Also inverted—The government of His Majesty, the Tsar of All the Russias, would like to make perfectly clear that it's Constantinople, not Istanbul.

 

 

* The city now known as Istanbul was founded as "Byzantion," (often referred to in the latinised form "[[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]]") and was later renamed "Nova Roma" (New Rome) by Constantine, but people kept on calling it Constantine's City ({{smallcaps|Constantinopolis}}/Κωνσταντινούπολις/Constantinople) until the name stuck. The alternate name "Istanbul" came into use at least a millennium before Turkey finally made it official in 1930. Its origin might come from the Greek "εις την Πόλιν," literally "to the city," and roughly "downtown." It might also simply be a corruption of "-instantinople." Other names include the Slavic "Tsargrad" (City of the Emperor) and the Norse "Mikligarðr" (Big City). In spite of all this, there lingers a popular perception that Constantinople is a Turkish name applied through conquest by the Turks. Even locals get irritated when foreigners call it "Constantinople."

** And Greeks get really irritated, even now, if you call it Istanbul.

* Egypt is originally called "Misr" (for "Capital City") in Arabic. Morocco is called "Al-Maghreb" ("The Country of the Sunset"). Arabic language itself adapts some country names in a very particular fashion: for example, Venise is called "Al-Bunduqia" (approximately "Where Bullets ("Bunduq", literally "Hazelnut") Are Made"), and "Yu-nan" for Greece for starters. The trope namer town is called "Al-Costantinyia". It also tends to render for some odd reason country names in feminine form (adding an -a suffix) like "Firansa", "Esbania", "Polanda"...

* New Amsterdam was immediately renamed "New York" after the English took the city from the Dutch; this was done to publicize the conquest, boost nationalism, and [[Egopolis|honor the Duke of York]], who was appointed its governor.

* Many people still refer to The Hellenic Republic as Greece, and have never even heard the phrase "Hellenic Republic", although the Hellenic Republic is the official name, "Greece" is the unofficial name that people use casually. Just because it's not necessarily "proper" doesn't mean that we have to refer it as such all the time; I mean, we don't always call "America" the "United States of America", or the UK the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", do we? It's just too bulky.

** When Greece gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, government agents were sent to every village to spread the news that the residents were now Greek citizens. Many villagers were surprised, as they still considered themselves Romans!

* The city of New Berlin in southern Ontario changed its name to Kitchener during the First World War. Hitler, Ontario.

** Several Canadian cities have gone through this: York/North York was changed to "Toronto" upon Confederation, as was Bytown --> Ottawa. Ontario and Quebec were themselves referred to as "Upper" and "Lower" Canada, respectively, until 1867.

* "China" comes from the Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty. They call their nation "Zhongguo" or "The Middle Kingdom".

* "Japan" is also "Nippon" or "Nihon", or "The Source of the Sun". The name "Japan" in English and a lot of other languages comes from an old Chinese pronunciation for "Nihon" which was "Cipan" which was written by Marco Polo as "Cipangu". When the Portuguese came to Malaysia, they encountered the pronunciation having turned into "Jepang". And then when it was brought to English, it was "Giapan".

*** Also, Calcutta has become Kolkata once again.

* In 1850 there was a proposal to add an enormous state called "Deseret" to the United States. It stretched all the way from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Congress decided to admit California instead, cut Deseret down to half its proposed size, and renamed it "Utah." Its capital, Great Salt Lake City, would have a much less radical name change a few years later.

* For 190 years, most of the land now known as [[California]] was called "New Albion" and claimed by the British, despite a total lack of colonization. "[[California]]" was only the peninsula further south. Only in 1769, when the Spanish Empire began colonizing the region, did the name change.

* The United States itself was originally going to be named Columbia, or United States of Columbia, or some variation thereof. The American moniker that was decided instead would symbolize how one day, all the Americas would be united. Up to World War I, the US' mascot was the goddess Columbia, as opposed to the more common nowadays Uncle Sam. In more iconic artwork, Columbia still represents the USA, as opposed to Uncle Sam.

** The name goes back to Roman times at least, who called the Finno-Ugric people living on the north-eastern shore of the Baltic Sea "Fenni".

* Armenia has been referred to as such by foreigners going back to ''Ancient Egypt'', where New Kingdom texts refer to it as 'Ermenen'. But going back almost as far, its natives have referred to their country as Hayastan. This could be because the Armenian race was formed by an inter-mixing of two ancient Anatolian tribes, the Armens and the Hayasa.

* Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province in Pakistan, used to be named "Northwest Frontier Province". Other names that have been suggested for the province are Afghania, Abasin, Pashtunistan, Nuristan, and Ghandara.

* Belgium has three official languages, so most cities have two or three names. Some examples are Antwerpen-Anvers; Mechelen-Malines-Mecheln; Brussel-Bruxelles-Brüssel; Doornik-Tournai. Road signs to these cities depend on which part of the country you're in.

** Tshwane is now also the name of the newly-created metropolitan area that Pretoria is a part of, so that's somewhat justifiable. But it's still incorrect to refer to the city of Pretoria by that name.

** As a compromise, the city was referred to as "Pretoria/Tshwane" in locally-issued print media during the World Cup.

** There's also the fact that the Taiwanese government originally was the mainland government in exile, and to some extent may still consider itself as the "true" one. Of course, the regime in Beijing disagrees...

* Dingle in Co. Kerry, Ireland was officially changed to its Irish name of Dangean. Naturally, many locals were upset with this and a campaign to change the name back is ongoing.

[[Category:Naming Conventions]]

[[Category:Alternate History Tropes]]