Dual naming is the adoption of an official toponymy that combines two earlier names, or uses both names, often to resolve a disagreement over which of the two individual names is more appropriate. In some cases, the reasons are political. Sometimes the two individual names are from different languages; in some cases this is because the country has more than one official language, and in others, one language has displaced another.
In several countries, dual naming has begun to be applied only recently. This has come about in places where a colonial settler community had displaced the indigenous peoples and started using names in the settler language centuries ago, and more recent efforts have been made to use names in the indigenous language alongside the colonial names, as an act of reconciliation.
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, the name 'Dari' replaced
Persian Language (Farsi) after the 1964 constitution which was the only official language until the approval of the constitution in that year. In addition government also added
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Australia
In Australia, a dual naming policy is often now used officially to name landmarks that are of significance to local Indigenous Australians, but for which the most common name is European.
For example, the landmark with the Pitjantjatjara name
Uluru and English name Ayers Rock was officially named
Uluru / Ayers Rock
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In the city of Adelaide, the Adelaide City Council began the process of dual naming all of the city squares, each of the parks making up the parklands which surround the Adelaide city centre and North Adelaide, and other sites of significance to the Kaurna people (the "Adelaide tribe") in 1997.
The Cocos (Keeling) Islands had their official dual name attested from 1916;
Finland
In Finland, many towns have two names, one in
Finnish language and one in
Swedish language (the two official languages of the country). The two names are considered equally correct but are not used as a formal duality of names.
France and Switzerland
The official names of bilingual areas of
Alsace,
France, and
Switzerland also apply. For instance, the German and French Swiss town of Biel/Bienne is the combination of its German name (Biel) and its French name (Bienne).
Hong Kong
During the British colonisation of Hong Kong, some places were given new English names, while the original
Chinese language name were also retained officially. For example, Stanley is called "
Chek Chue" (赤柱; lit: Red Pillar) in Chinese. This causes a same place to have completely different names with different etymologies in English and Chinese. Similarly, roads may be also separately named in the two languages. E.g. Queensway is known as 金鐘道 in Chinese (lit. Golden Bell Road)
Meanwhile, some places' English names may be Calque or literal translations of their Chinese equivalents. E.g. Sandy Ridge (Chinese language: 沙嶺)
New Zealand
Some places in New Zealand have dual Māori and
English language names, such as Aoraki / Mount Cook.
The practice of officially giving certain New Zealand places dual names began in the 1920s,
but dual names have become much more common in the 1990s and 2000s, in part due to Treaty of Waitangi settlements.
Northern Ireland
"Derry/Londonderry" has been used unofficially to circumvent the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, in which Irish nationalists used "Derry" and
Ulster unionism use "Londonderry" for the
Derry and county in
Northern Ireland. The "Derry stroke Londonderry" spoken form of this has in turn engendered the city's nickname "Stroke City".
Romania
In
Romania, the cities of Turnu Severin and Cluj were renamed Drobeta-Turnu Severin in 1972 and
Cluj-Napoca in 1974, respectively, for political reasons, as the communist government wanted to emphasize the cities' Roman origins.
Spain
Another example of the phenomenon can be seen in the name of the capital of the
Spain Basque Country,
Vitoria-Gasteiz. This combines the city's
Spanish language name of Vitoria and
Basque language name of Gasteiz.
United States
The Denali–Mount McKinley naming dispute is an example of a dual naming issue in the United States.
Border geographical features
A special problem occurs when the landmark lies on the border between two or more countries. For example,
Mount Everest has several different names used locally.
See also
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Bilingual tautological names
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List of dual place names in New Zealand
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Names of places in Finland in Finnish and in Swedish
