The Places That Moved

Names can refer to different regions altogether depending on who you talk to and when

5 min readApr 6, 2021

We associate people, things, concepts, and certain parts of the world with a distinct label. This muscle memory goes so deep, that the instance I look at a map I exclaim, “Oh, this is Taiwan, and this is Australia, and this is Brazil.” So if someone tells me otherwise, I’m immediately skeptical because this is where I learned they were. But at the end of the day, names are names and can be quite different based on a person’s cultural perspective and time period. Here are some instances of when a geography nerd would mistakenly think you were crazy if you told them where these places were situated.

Albania

Modern Albania and Caucasian Albania have basically no connection other than a common name. Albania is a country in the Balkans while Caucasian Albania was in what is present-day Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia, and Georgia.

First of all, it’s very important to note the difference between endonyms and exonyms. The former is the name used for a territory by the people who inhabit it, while the latter is the name given to a region by foreigners. In modern Albania’s case, its endonym is Shqipëri or Shqipëria. Caucasian Albania’s original endonym is not known, but the Udi people who inhabit the region today use the names Aghwank or Aluank.

In many of these examples, Albania included, the two regions are only linked by their Latin exonyms. But why were they both called Albania by outsiders? One very likely possibility is geography. Albania is covered with mountain ranges like the Pindus in the south and the Albanian Alps to the north, while Caucasian Albania is home to the Caucasus mountains. The prefix alb may connect to the Latin word albus, meaning “White,” which can be seen in the word “Alps.”

Curiously, the Romans also referred to Scotland as Albania which was Latinized from the original Greek Albion, itself possibly originating from the Scottish Gaelic endonym for Scotland, Alba. So it looks like Albania originated from the corrupted Latin form of the corrupted Greek form of the word for Scotland, and that this term can also be used for two other totally unrelated regions. But it’s fascinating to note the possible geographical motivations behind its use, as the Scottish Highlands share the same high elevation and climate as much of Albania and the Caucasus Mountains.

Iberia

Iberia is yet another exonym. Again, this ancient kingdom in the Caucasus has zero connection with the Iberian Peninsula where the countries of Spain, Portugal, and Andorra are situated. It was located in most of present-day Georgia and northeast Turkey.

The Latin exonym Iberia may have originated from the Armenian term for the Georgians, Virkʿ, Ivirkʿ, and Iverk. This was then corrupted to the Greek form Iviron, and finally to the Roman Iberia. The term Georgia itself is also an exonym as the Georgian name for the country is actually Sakartvelo. It possibly came from the Persian gurğ or gurğān. Unlike Albania which may have had geographical connotations, Iberia originated directly from a name already used regionally to refer to the Georgian people, so its connection to Hispanic Iberia is just a pure coincidence.

Benin

On globes and maps, you can see that Benin City, one of Nigeria’s largest cities, is located in the Kingdom of Benin’s historical territory, but is not part of the country of Benin. Weird, right?

Though the Kingdom of Benin and modern Benin are at least in close proximity to one another, the naming is still strange considering the incredible diversity of West Africa. Before French colonization, Southern Benin was ruled by the Kingdom of Dahomey, which was culturally and linguistically different from the Kingdom of Benin. Though part of the same language family, the Beninese mostly spoke Edo while the Dahomese spoke Fon. The name Benin is also an exonym, a mistranslation/corruption of Ibinu by the Portuguese.

When the French colonized the region in 1897, their lack of regard for the cultural intricacies of the region led to the use of the name “Dahomey” for colonized territories to the north as well as the former Kingdom of Dahomey, despite the fact that their inhabitants did not speak Fon and had different rulers.

Thus, when Dahomey finally gained independence in 1975, its leaders not only wanted a name change in order to cast off colonial influences but also to bolster a sense of common identity by choosing something more unifying. Benin may have been picked because the country’s coastline was situated on the Bight of Benin. This is another instance where geography served as a significant link between two names.

It’s quite extraordinary how frequently exonyms are used and how much they deviate from endonyms. China’s endonym is Zhōngguó, Hungary’s is Magyarorzsag, Greece’s is Ellada, Armenia’s is Hayastan, Egypt’s is Miṣr. But the key lesson here goes deeper.

Almost everything we know about Carthage, one of the world’s great civilizations is through the lens of Greek and Roman accounts with all their bias and possible scorn. If the Romans had not destroyed Carthage and erased most of the first-hand accounts of the city’s inhabitants, then we wouldn’t be calling it Carthage. The term comes from the Latin Carthago, while the Carthaginians called their city Qart-ḥadašt.

This is the lesson of conquest, the winning side not only wins politically but linguistically. The re-rendering of Qart-ḥadašt as Carthage is a metaphor, a symbol of that cultural victory the Romans won. When a country’s endonym is also its exonym, that says something about the cultural power and distinction it possesses. And every nation, people, and culture should have access to such power. So try to learn the endonyms!