# Melbourne or Batmania
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 24, 2022, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989 "2022-05-24T10:03:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wood\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wood_Man)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/1 "2022-05-24T10:03:21Z")
For two years, 1835 to 1837, the capital of Victoria, Australia was called “Batmania”. Named after one of its founders, John Batman.
Lots of stuff on the internet about this.
> **[The Story Of How Melbourne Was Almost Named 'Batmania'](https://theuijunkie.com/melbourne-batmania/)**
>
> Click on the pic to find out.
Does not sound plausible to me. Why not just name it Batman. Or Batmanland?
Are other places named after people with adding ‘IA’ at the end of the name?
Melbourne is actually named after William Lamb or Lord Melbourne who was UK Prime Minister under Queen Victoria.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/2 "2022-05-24T10:05:47Z")
> [@Wood\_Man](#):
>
> Are other places named after people with adding ‘IA’ at the end of the name?
Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, named after the fifth President of the United States, comes to mind.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/3 "2022-05-24T10:09:10Z")
The Australia island state of Tasmania is named after Abel Tasman, the first Eurpoean to see the place.
> **[Tasmania | Toponymy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmania#Toponymy)**
>
> Tasmania is named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who made the first reported European sighting of the island on 24 November 1642. Tasman named the island Anthony van Diemen's Land after his sponsor Anthony van Diemen, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. The name was later shortened to Van Diemen's Land by the British. It was officially renamed Tasmania in honour of its first European discoverer on 1 January 1856.
> Tasmania was sometimes referred to as "Dervon", as mentioned in the Jerilderi...
The -ia suffix meaning “place of …” is petty common for countries and regions. E.g. Slovakia = the place of the Slovaks.
Hell, Philadelphia is named as the place of Philadelph, a Latin coinage for love of brothers / family / humanity. Hence the longstanding moniker “The city of brotherly love”.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/4 "2022-05-24T10:17:14Z")
If we’re admitting not only cities but also regions or countries (for which the -ia ending is quite common), then you’ll get a lot. In the Americas alone, you have Bolivia and Colombia. Plus the District of Columbia. In Africa, Cecil Rhodes got two Rhodesias named after him.
U.S. states which meet the OP’s criteria (named after an identifiable historical person and ending in -ia) are Georgia, Virginia and West Virginia.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/5 "2022-05-24T10:57:58Z")
> [@Schnitte](#):
>
> U.S. states which meet the OP’s criteria (named after an identifiable historical person and ending in -ia) are Georgia, Virginia and West Virginia.
And Pennsylvania.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/6 "2022-05-24T12:01:16Z")
Let’s not forget Alexandria, Alexandria, Alexandria, Alexandria, Alexandr…
The guy liked naming cities after himself.
To speak to the OP directly, I don’t know if Greek is the original etymology of the -ia suffix in place names, but it definitely shows how old the tradition is. If you want to aggrandize yourself as ancient heroes and conquerors once did, you take your name and slap IA on the end.
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/7 "2022-05-24T13:28:16Z")
The question is, how did they pronounce Batmania? Was the second A long or short? Unfortunately, the article in the OP doesn’t answer that, or why the name was changed.
Perhaps Mr. Batman didn’t like the association with “mania,” or maybe the residents didn’t care to be called Batmaniacs.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/8 "2022-05-24T14:25:28Z")
Of course there’s this place:
> **[Batman, Turkey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman%2C_Turkey)**
>
> Pages for logged out editors learn more
>
>
>
> Batman (Kurdish: Êlih) is a Kurdish-majority city in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey and the capital of Batman Province. It lies on a plateau, 540 meters (1,772 feet) above sea level, near the confluence of the Batman River and the Tigris. The Batı Raman oil field, which is the largest oil field in Turkey, is located just outside the city. Batman has a local airport and a military airbase, which was used for transit of aircraft and h...
and the nearby eponymous river
> **[Batman River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_River)**
>
> Pages for logged out editors learn more
>
> The Batman River is a major tributary of the Tigris, joining it near the source of Tigris called Dicle River in southeast Turkey. The region along the Batman River is known for its oil fields.
> The river originates in the Anti-Taurus Mountains (at the Sason and Genç mountains) and flows approximately from north to south, passing near the city of Batman and forming a natural border between the Batman Province and Diyarbakır Province. The historic M...
Which latter article suggests the name is a 19th century invention. I have no clue how one forms the “resident of” affix in Turkish.
It seems that pop culture has wrecked “Bat” as a first syllable, much as the hamburger folks have wrecked “Mc”.
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/9 "2022-05-24T18:57:10Z")
> [@Wood\_Man](#):
>
> Are other places named after people with adding ‘IA’ at the end of the name?
Fordlandia, Henry Ford’s failed rubber plantation.
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/10 "2022-05-24T19:15:47Z")
I’d have gone with Batmandu.
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### Author:  [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/11 "2022-05-24T19:19:38Z")
Never Mind.
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/12 "2022-05-24T19:37:07Z")
I remember the first time my then boyfriend mentioned Snowdonia. I 100% thought he was making the name up. I mean c’mon, it sounds like a neighboring town to Bedrock.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/13 "2022-05-24T19:57:00Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#):
>
> To speak to the OP directly, I don’t know if Greek is the original etymology of the -ia suffix in place names
It is. Was used in the form -eia in Ancient Greek, with a meaning that would derive a feminine variant of an existing noun (polis is feminine in Greek). See the Wiktionary article (which gives another example for its use in city names, Caesarea): [-εια - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/-%CE%B5%CE%B9%CE%B1)
The Romans, who liked to integrate Greek culture into theirs, modified the suffix to -ia to fit their pronunciation.
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### Author:  [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/14 "2022-05-24T22:35:30Z")
> [@Wood\_Man](#):
>
> For two years, 1835 to 1837, the capital of Victoria, Australia was called “Batmania”. Named after one of its founders, John Batman.
Like lots of stuff on the internet, take two facts and draw an incorrect connection between them.
John Batman founded a settlement upstream on the Yarra River which drained into Port Phillip Bay in New South Wales in 1835.
From 1835-1851 this village was the population centre of an administrative district of New South Wales known as the Port Phillip District, and was governed from Sydney.
In 1851 the colony of Victoria was founded, with the town of Melbourne as capital.
John Batman died in 1838 in Melbourne, after the village he founded was renamed in 1837.
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/15 "2022-05-24T23:28:44Z")
Maybe they could make this a theme region. Main city Batmania, suburbs Robinville, Alfredton, City of Jokers, Selinatown, etc.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/16 "2022-05-24T23:30:55Z")
An ironic name for a criminal:
> **[Trending: Batman bin Suparman jailed in Singapore](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24911186)**
>
> A man in Singapore with the eye-catching name, Batman bin Suparman, has been jailed on theft and drugs charges - as BBC Trending reports, his name has made him something of a social media star.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2022, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/17 "2022-05-25T04:53:37Z")
A close approximation: Tarzana (not Tarzania) Ca. named after Edgar Rice Burroughs who lived in that area.
ETA:
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> And Pennsylvania.
Named, of course, after the colonial governor Sir William Pennsylvan.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2022, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/18 "2022-05-25T12:47:09Z")
Another example are the umpteen places named Victoria that can be found all over the Commonwealth. Of course, in this case -ia is already part of the name of the person in whose honour these places were named; it’s not a suffix added to turn the personal name into a toponym.
And while we’re talking about made-up place names using the -ia suffix, I’m also throwing in Brasília, Brazil’s planned capital city founded in the 1950s. Not the name of a person, of course, but it applies the -ia suffix to get a neologism.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2022, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/19 "2022-05-25T12:59:17Z")
> [@Schnitte](#):
>
> Another example are the umpteen places named Victoria that can be found all over the Commonwealth. Of course, in this case -ia is already part of the name of the person in whose honour these places were named; it’s not a suffix added to turn the personal name into a toponym.
That confused me just the other day when I read about an institution in Victoria, Australia called the “Victorian” something-something. For a second I thought it meant Victorian-_era_ before I realized it meant the state. Of course Victorian is a legitimate adjective to refer to things in the various Victorias, but it will always look like an era to me on first read.
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### Author:  [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2022, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melbourne-or-batmania/964989/20 "2022-05-25T15:19:39Z")
If John Batman didn’t have a rival named Joe Kerr I’ll be very disappointed.
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