Exonym and endonym

An exonym is a name for a place that is not used within that place by the local inhabitants, or a name for a people that is not used by that people. The name used by the people or locals themselves is an endonym or autonym. For example, Deutschland is an endonym; Germany is an English exonym for the same place; and Allemagne is a French exonym. Exonyms may derive from distinct roots as with the preceding example, or may be cognate words which have diverged in pronunciation or othography. For example, London is known as Londres in French, Spanish and Portuguese; Londra in Italian and Romanian; Londýn in Czech and Slovak; Londyn in Polish; and Lontoo in Finnish.

Some languages use the same spelling as the endonym but change the pronunciation, thus making it an exonym. The English pronunciation of Paris, for example, is not an attempt at pronouncing the word the way the French do, with a silent "s."

Tendencies in the development of exonyms

Exonyms develop for places of special significance for speakers of the language of the exonym. Consequently, most European capitals have English exonyms, e.g. Athens (Αθήνα/Athína), Belgrade (Београд/Beograd), Bucharest (Bucureşti), Brussels (Bruxelles, Brussel), Copenhagen (København), Moscow (Москва/Moskva), Prague (Praha), Rome (Roma), The Hague (Den Haag), Tirana (Tiranë), Munich (Muenchen), Cologne (Koeln), Vienna (Wien) or Warsaw (Warszawa). For minor places of no significance, attempts to reproduce local names have been made in English since the time of the Crusades. Livorno, to take an instance, was Leghorn because it was an Italian port essential to English merchants and, by the 18th century, to the British navy. Not far away, a minor port on the same sea like Rapallo never received an exonym.

In the late 20th century the use of exonyms often became controversial. Groups often prefer that outsiders avoid exonyms where they have come to be used in a pejorative way; for example, Roma people prefer that term over exonyms like Gypsy. People may also seek to avoid exonyms due to historical sensitivities, as in the case of German names for Polish and Czech places which used to be ethnically or politically German.

In recent years, geographers have sought to reduce the use of exonyms to avoid these kind of problems. For example, it is now common for Spanish speakers to refer to the Turkish capital as Ankara rather than use the Spanish exonym Angora, still in use for a type of cat.

But according to the United Nations Statistics Division:

Time has, however, shown that initial ambitious attempts to rapidly decrease the number of exonyms were over-optimistic and not possible to realise in the intended way. The reason would appear to be that many exonyms have become common words in a language and can be seen as part of the language’s cultural heritage.

In English, attempts to skirt a familiar exonym in order accurately to reproduce an endonym often appears pretentious, a device used to comic effect in E.F. Benson's novels concerning Miss Mapp and Lucia.

Sometimes the government of a country tries to endorse the use of an endonym instead of traditional exonyms outside the country:

In 1985 the government of Côte d'Ivoire pleaded that this French name should be used in all languages instead of exonyms such as Ivory Coast, so that the former is now the official English name of that country in the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee (see Name of Côte d'Ivoire).
The Ukrainian government maintains that the capital of Ukraine should be called Kyiv in English because it considers the traditional English exonym Kiev to be derived from the Russian name Kiyev (Киев) (see Kiev or Kyiv?).
The Belarusian government argues that the endonym Belarus should be used in all languages and has been rather successful in English, where the former exonym Byelorussia, still used with reference to the Soviet Republic, has virtually died out, whereas in other languages exonyms like German Weißrussland, Swedish Vitryssland, Dutch Wit-Rusland (all literally 'White Russia') or French Biélorussie are still much more common than Belarus (see History of the name Belarus).
In 1989 the military regime of Burma requested that the English name of the country be Myanmar, with Myanma as the adjective of the country and Bamar as the name of the inhabitants (see Explanation of the names of Burma/Myanmar).

Confusion with renaming

Exonyms and endonyms must not be confused with the results of geographical renaming as in the case of Saint Petersburg, which became Petrograd in 1914, Leningrad in 1924, and Saint Petersburg again in 1991. In this case, although St Petersburg has a German etymology, this was never a German exonym for the city between 1914 and 1991, just as Nieuw Amsterdam, the Dutch name of New York City until 1664, is not its Dutch exonym.

The old place names outdated after renaming are afterwards often used as historicisms. Consequently, even today one would talk about the Siege of Leningrad, not the Siege of St. Petersburg, because at that time (1941-1944) the city was called Leningrad. Likewise, one would say that Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg in 1724, not in Kaliningrad, as it has been called since 1946.

List of English exonyms for peoples

Exonym	Endonym
Albanian	Shqiptarë
Argentinian(s) or Argentines	Argentinos
Armenians	Hayer
Basque	Euskaldunak
Brazilian(s)	Brasileiro(s)
Chinese	Zhōngguó rén ()or Huá rén ()
Cornish	Kernowek, Kernewek, Curnoack
Dutch	Nederlanders
Egyptian	Maṣri (Egyptian Vernacular), Miṣri (Standard Arabic) ()
Eskimo	Inuit or Yupik (two distinct peoples)
Etruscans	Rasenna
Finns	Suomalaiset
French	Français
Germans	Deutsche
Greeks	(Éllines)
Gypsies	Roma, Sinti
Hungarians	Magyarok
The Iroquois	Haudenosaunee ("The League of Peace and Power")
Japanese	Nihonjin ()
Koreans	Hanguksaram () or Chosŏnsaram ()
Lapps	Sami
Moroccan	Maghrabi ()
Poles	Polacy
Puerto Ricans	puertorriqueños, riqueños, puertorros (informal), boricua (Lokono "The one of the Altive Lord's land")
Quechua	Runa
Sumerians	Sag-gi-ga ("The Black-Headed People")
Turkish people	Türkler
Vlachs	Armân (Aromanian)
Welsh	Cymru

List of English exonyms for German toponyms

List of creators of exonyms

Exonym	Creator
Byzantine Empire	Hieronymus Wolf, popularized by Montesquieu
Sumeria	Akkadians

List of country exonyms

Exonym	Name
Armenia	Hayastan (Հայաստան - "the land of Haik"); see Armenia - Origin of the name
The Aztec	Mexica or Tenochca
Bhutan	Druk Yul ("land of the dragon" in Dzongkha)
The Byzantine Empire	Romania (Pωμανια). Derived from the "Roman Empire".
China	Zhōngguó (中國) ("Middle Kingdom"); see Names of China
Croatia	Hrvatska
Egypt	Miṣr (مصر) in Arabic, Maṣr in Egyptian dialect; means "a country" or "a state"
Estonia	Eesti in Estonian
Finland	Suomi in Finnish, Finland in Swedish
Georgia	Sakartvelo (საქართველო); see Georgia (country) - Origin of the name
Germany	Deutschland; see Names for Germany
Greece	Elás (Ελλάς) or Eládha (Ελλάδα)
Hungary	Magyarország
The Inca	Tawantinsuyu ("Four Corners")
India	Bhārat in Hindi, but India is officially recognized too; see Origin of India's name
Japan	Nippon / Nihon (日本, "The Sun's Origin"; see Etymology of Japan)
Korea	Chosŏn (Joseon)(조선 / 朝鮮) in North Korea and Hanguk (한국 / 韓國) in South Korea, but Goryeo (고려 / 高麗), the source of Korea, is used as neutral name for Korea; see Names of Korea
Maldives	Dhivehi raajj'e ; ("The Islands of Dhivehi People" in Dhivehi language; see History of the Maldives)
Montenegro	Crna Gora / Црна Гора ("black mountain" in Serbian; see History of Montenegro - Etymology)
Morocco	al-Maghrib (المغرب)("The West" in Arabic; see also Maghrib and Maghreb)
Poland	Polska
Spain	España -- not exonyms, both names come from the same Latin word "Hispania", different outcome from the same word are not exonyms
Sumeria	Ki-en-gi ("Place of the Civilized Lords")
Sweden	Sverige
Switzerland	Schweiz (German), Suisse (French), and Svizzera (Italian) represent the endonym in three of the four official languages of Switzerland
Syria	Suria (سوريا)
Thailand	ประเทศไทย
Tibet	བོད་ (Böd)
Turkey	Türkiye
Wales	Cymru

List of geographical region exonyms

Exonym	Name
Andalusia	Andalucía (from Arabic al-Andalus, derived from Latin vandalus after the Germanic Vandals who settled in Hispania Baetica with the collapse of Roman rule. The Arabic term was given by the Arabs to their Spanish possessions after Islamic conquest; -- not really an exonym, just the old Spanish pronunciation, in fact still pronounced that way by many Andalusians)
Bangkok	Krung Thep (กรุงเทพ)
Basque Country	Euskadi (Basque), País Vasco (Spanish), Vascongadas (Spanish, before the 1970s, not in use today; also as adjective: "Provincias Vascongadas";)
Canton	Guǎngzhōu (廣州) ("Expansive Prefecture")
Castile	Castilla - same word with different pronunciation, English uses French name -- not an exonym
Catalonia	Catalunya (Catalonian), Cataluña (Spanish) -- not really an exonym, just the formal "Latinized" version, created by Catalans themselves when writing in Latin
Amoy	Xiàmén
Macau / Macao	Àomén
Navarre	Nafarroa (Basque), Navarra (Spanish) ; Basque Nafarroa -> Spanish Navarra -> French Navarre -> English Navarre -- just adapted pronunciation not different roots
Transylvania	Ardeal / Erdely / Siebenbürgen

External links

Ethnicity | Semantics | Toponymy | Place names

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