The question is as the title states. My guess would probably be Istanbul (Constantinople, Byzantium, etc). That is the only one I can think of at the moment.

Istanbul (Byzans, Byzantium, Augusta Antonina, COnstantinople) is the best example.

Beijing is another (Tatu, Khanbalik, Peking, etc.)

There is also a city in the Crimea whose name I can't remember (Tamatarka, Tmutarakan, etc.)

Nova Roma was another of Byzantiums names as well ;)

There is no 'byzans' though ;) It was named Byzantion, or Byzantas.

There haven't been too many city name changes in history. Some examples I can think of:

The ancient Mede Hagtmatana, which under Greek rule became known as Agbatana or Epiphanaea -Latin Ecbatana (though the Romans never ruled it)- is now known as Hamadan- although this is much more an evolution of the city name.

I have no idea what the Greeks and Armenians called Urartaean Tushpa, but it has been known as Van after the Turkish conquest.

The city named after the Parisii tribes was renamed Lutetia by the Romans and later renamed into Paris again.

Rome was known as Ruma in Etruscan times and was allegedly renamed twice thereafter; once into Neropolis and once into Colonia Commodiana. Three guesses who thought up these names, first two don't count ;)

Samarkand was known as Marakanda, then as Alexandreia in antiquity; Herat was founded as Alexandreia Areia; Khodshent was founded as Alexandreia Eshata; Margiana was also refounded as Alexandreia and was later called Merv; I think it is modern-day Mary, but I could be mistaken (I also think it was called Antiocheia during the Seleucid age). Modern-day Gasni was founded as Alexandreia and was called Gazna in the Middle Ages.

Babillu was first renamed into Bab-ili, then Babirush (by the Persians), Babylon by the Greeks and is known as Babil since Sasanian times.

St. Petersburg was renamed Petrograd in the early 20th century, then into Leningrad and then into St. Petersburg again.

Jerusalem has had many names:
Moriah
Salem
Jebus
Jerusalem
Zion
Aelia Capitolina
al-Quds

Let's see

St. Petersburg
Petrograd
Leningrad

Not to mention

Volgograd
Stalingrad
Tsaritsyn

How did I forget Nova Roma! :lol: Most cities' names evolve during the times, rather than be renamed as such. It makes coming up with these cities hard.

I want to come up with another city... um... Qandahar has been called Alexandria ____, Kanda, and another name in its' time. Tasjkent has also seen its fair share of names.

Saint Petersburg was originally named Dutch Saint Petersburich (or so, that dialect I don´t know ;)).

Adler

Saint Petersburg was originally named Dutch Saint Petersburich (or so, that dialect I don´t know ;)).

Adler


What about Hamburch? ;)

Stefan :p ;).
In reality the North Germans speak the g at the end of the name like a "soft" ch like in Schnäppchen.
The name Hamburg was indeed changed at least once: The castle built by Carolus Magnus about 800 AD was called Hammaburg. This year archaeologists did make excavations at the Heiligengeistfeld, where some remains of the Hammaburg were.
Hamburg became a very important city in the next centuries and so it is no wonder that some tried to make profit out of the location and started to build another town very near: Altona (the word comes most probably from all to nah, all too near, although there is still a debate).
Altona and several other Prussian towns and villages, as for example Rahlstedt or Wandsbek, (as Holstein was part of Prussia) were integrated into Hamburg in 1937 by the Great Hamburg act, like Berlin did it about 15 years before with some nearby towns and villages. This lead to a massive decrease of tax revenues in Holstein as many potent towns were no longer belonging to it.

Adler

I recently came across this when contributing to an article on the German Wikipedia about the Tunisian city of Sousse: During Punic and Roman times it was called Hadrumetum (not sure about the exact Punic form, though). When the Vandals conquered it, they renamed it in Hunericopolis. During the Byzantine time it was called Justinanopolis. The Arabs renamed it Susah. The French form of this is Sousse.

Stefan :p ;).
In reality the North Germans speak the g at the end of the name like a "soft" ch like in Schnäppchen.
The name Hamburg was indeed changed at least once: The castle built by Carolus Magnus about 800 AD was called Hammaburg. This year archaeologists did make excavations at the Heiligengeistfeld, where some remains of the Hammaburg were.
Hamburg became a very important city in the next centuries and so it is no wonder that some tried to make profit out of the location and started to build another town very near: Altona (the word comes most probably from all to nah, all too near, although there is still a debate).
Altona and several other Prussian towns and villages, as for example Rahlstedt or Wandsbek, (as Holstein was part of Prussia) were integrated into Hamburg in 1937 by the Great Hamburg act, like Berlin did it about 15 years before with some nearby towns and villages. This lead to a massive decrease of tax revenues in Holstein as many potent towns were no longer belonging to it.

Adler

You are reminding me of my very last day in Hamburg (sigh)... I went into the City Hall because I haven't been there before (all that stuff you just delay because you have got "so much time"), and there was an exhibition on the city's history.

Some of the names you mentioned ...aren't different names actualy. They are in different languges, but not diferent names. For example Peterburg and Petrograd.. It's the same but Petrograd is in Russian. burg=grad=city.
And for Istanbul..well in my language it was called Carigrad, translated in English King'scity. Should these names be added to the list of the different ones ?

Or what about Odrin and Adrianapolis ? Are these different names ?

No, Petrograd and St. Petersburg are really different names. St. Petersburg was called prior to WW1 and has been called since 1991 Санкт Петербург (Sankt Peterburg) also in Russian, while between the start of WW1 and the Bolshevik revolution the name was officially Петроград (Petrograd), which was supposed to sound less German, as Germany was Russia's foe in the war. So it's two different names in Russian as well.

I'll add in the modern-day city of Lviv, which had 4 namechanges just last century: Lemberg in Austria-Hungary, Lwow in Poland, Lemberg again under the Nazis, Lvov in the USSR and now Lviv in Ukraine. So living there over the last century you could conceivably have lived in 5 different countries without moving once.

Bratislava
Its incarnations:
Bratislava (instated during the First Czechoslovak Republic and ongoing since then)
Pressburg (the German name used often until the above-mentioned Czechoslovak name change)
Pozsony (official name under the Hungarian Kingdom during the Dual Monarchy period)
Presporok (Slovak version until above-mentioned name change)
Wilsonovo (For a brief period in late 1918 and early 1919)

Beijing is another (Tatu, Khanbalik, Peking, etc.)



Beijing is just a modern westernized name for Peking _in english_. The city's name itself hasn't changed.

Here's a more detailed list of Beijing's many names in history:

11th century BC = a small town under the Jing dukedom.

Conquered by the Yen dukedom sometime during the middle of the Spring and Autumn period (770 - 476 BC), made capital. Renamed Jingcheng.

226 BC Yen conquered by Qin. Jingcheng faded into insignificance.

938 AD became part of the Khitan Liao Empire. Made auxiliary capital. Renamed Nanjing - southern capital :eek: (well it was south for the nomads :lol: ) and Yenjing.

1153 conquered by Juchen Jin. Made capital. Renamed Zhongdu. Abandoned 1214 in the face of invading Mongols.

1276 reconstructed and made capital by Kublai Khan. Renamed Tatu.

Made capital during the reign of the Ming emperor Yunglo. Renamed Beijing.

After the collapse of the Qing in 1911, lost capital status. Renamed Beiping.

1949 made capital once more, this time of the PRC. Renamed back to Beijing.

And Beijing is a relatively young city yet by Chinese standards. :D

Aquincum
Ofen
Buda
Budapest

??--?> aramaic Orhai --> ??? --> grek Edessa --> arabic Ar-Ruha --> turkish Urfa --> turkish Sanliurfa

f.e.

Ancyra, Angora, Ankara might be an example.

Did Hadrianopolis have any other names than Edirne?

These are not exactly the same cities but still very close to each other 1-2 miles apart. Mazaka, Caesarea, Kayseri.

st petersburg is mine, Leingrad, Petrograd and atleast one other grad i cant think of.

I know this one wont win but Byzantine, Constantinople, Instanbul

St.Petersburg all happpened in the 20th century it would have to have some kind of prize for that.

Eboracum
Jorvik
York

was a city when London was a swamp.

^ Tis true.

And the Romans were the ones who 'deswamped it' EDIT: 'bridged the swamp'. They built the first bridge over the Thames. It stood around where Westminster Bridge is now. The amazing fact here is that this was the only bridge for some 800-1000 years (sorry can't remember the exact dates) and stood for around that time. This is all from Peter Ackroyd's great 'Biography of London' - a great read!

the winner have to be

Ust-Sheksna > Rybansk > Rybnaya Sloboda > Rybnoy > Rybinsk > Shcherbakov > Rybinsk > Andropov > Rybinsk

all those in less than 1000 years...more incredible in ''the Soviet years, Rybinsk continued its impressive record of renamings, for it changed its name four times: to Shcherbakov (after Aleksandr Shcherbakov) in 1946, back to Rybinsk in 1957, to Andropov (after Yuri Andropov) in 1984, and back to Rybinsk in 1989.''

but as a histotric city : Qila Rai Pithora → Siri → Tughluqabad → Jahanpanah → Kotla Firoz Shah → Purana Qila → Shahjahanabad → Delhi

funny too is

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico changed from the name "Hot Springs" in 1950 when Truth or Consequences host Ralph Edwards announced that he would do the show from the first town that renamed itself after the popular radio programme.

Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, formerly Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, negotiated a deal with the heirs of athlete Jim Thorpe to become the site of his tomb in a bid to increase tourism.

Ismay, Montana unofficially took the name of "Joe, Montana", after the NFL quarterback Joe Montana, as part of a 1993 publicity stunt

Clark, Texas renamed itself "Dish" after the EchoStar Communications' Dish Network – all 55 households in the town are given free satellite television for 10 years

Kazakhstan`s capitals name changed many times in the last decade.

Alma-Ata----Almaty----Another one which I can not remember. I do not know what it is now.

Ancyra, Angora, Ankara might be an example.

Did Hadrianopolis have any other names than Edirne?

These are not exactly the same cities but still very close to each other 1-2 miles apart. Mazaka, Caesarea, Kayseri.

And it was named both Caesarea Cappadocia (or whatever) and Caesarea Mazaca. It was part of states of armenian and grek languages, so pronounciations may be even different.

Yes, Edirne had another named before being named by Hadrian. The name started with O, but I'm not quit sure which letters came next :)

Oh, and Epidamnos-->Dyrrachium-->Dyrachion-->Dracz--??? in turkish-->Durres

Kalapa to Jayakarta to Batavia (Dutch control), back to Jayakarta (Japanese Control) and then simply Jakarta.

jeriko one

Kazakhstan`s capitals name changed many times in the last decade.

Alma-Ata----Almaty----Another one which I can not remember. I do not know what it is now.

Almaty is still Almaty. It's no longer the capital city; it was moved to Aqmola in 1998 and that city was renamed Astana, which means, of all things, Capital City. Both cities have had several names

Zailyoty-->Vemy (or Vyemyi)-->Alma-Ata-->Almaty

Akmolinsk-->Tselinograd-->Aqmola-->Astana

Almaty is still Almaty. It's no longer the capital city; it was moved to Aqmola in 1998 and that city was renamed Astana, which means, of all things, Capital City. Both cities have had several names

Zailyoty-->Vemy (or Vyemyi)-->Alma-Ata-->Almaty

Akmolinsk-->Tselinograd-->Aqmola-->Astana


I shall update my atlas I still have Alma Ata as capital and Tselinograd..thanks

Almaty is still Almaty. It's no longer the capital city; it was moved to Aqmola in 1998 and that city was renamed Astana, which means, of all things, Capital City. Both cities have had several names

Zailyoty-->Vemy (or Vyemyi)-->Alma-Ata-->Almaty

Akmolinsk-->Tselinograd-->Aqmola-->Astana

Thanks for the info. I was starting to get really confused about the name changes.

Aquincum
Ofen
Buda
Budapest
Budapest is the combination of the towns Buda and Pest.

how many times has new york been renamed? was it just once?

how many times has new york been renamed? was it just once?
Nieuw Amsterdam - New York - Fort Oranje (very short) - New York

ok, I thought there was another one in there. I knew new Amsterdam, and New York.

I know this one wont win but Byzantine, Constantinople, Instanbul


Byzation(Greek)-Byzantium(Latin)-Nea/Nova Roma(Latin)-Constantinople(Latin)-Konstantinopolis(Greek)-Istanbul(Greek from "eis tin Poli" )

Wasn't Constantinople also called Augusta Antonina or something like that for a few years?

wouldnt be surprised, but I myself havent seen it before, so *I* cant comment on it.

Septimus Severus named it that in 196 but the name didn't stick.

I know more about Constantinople and Rome and so forth than Xen on one thing :p Bow before me :smug:

ok, I thought there was another one in there. I knew new Amsterdam, and New York.

Big Apple
Gotham City

constantinople:
istanbull
Byzans
Byzantium
Augusta Antonina

thats a lot of names!

constantinople:
istanbull
Byzans
Byzantium
Augusta Antonina

thats a lot of names!

you forgot "Nea Roma"

I know more about Constantinople and Rome and so forth than Xen on one thing :p Bow before me :smug:
:lol: :goodjob:

Can any body tell me why Egypt is called so ?? and if it had any other names before