# Place names that were better before they changed them **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 10, 2023, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353 "2023-10-10T11:37:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/101 "2023-10-12T22:52:33Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Everyone should call all places what the people who live there call them. It’ll be a wrench at first, but so much more convenient ever afterwards. There’s really no need to do this. I’ve never heard any english person suggest that other countries need to use the same names as we do. Life’s rich tapestry and all that. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/102 "2023-10-12T22:54:09Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > You can still tell who did and didn’t grow up here by what they call the airport. I still call it “National” and still get momentarily confused when I hear “Reagan.” I would say it’s more indicative of political affiliation. Speaking of natives, I object to “The DMV.” “DC Metro” served me just fine for fifty years, and I’ll keep using it. This is not Detroit. ---
**Author:** ![Honolulu\_Lulu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/87869e/32.png) [@Honolulu\_Lulu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honolulu_Lulu)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/103 "2023-10-12T22:58:20Z")
Sixth Avenue The Tappan Zee Bridge. While the original TZB wasn’t renamed, the replacement bridge was given a new name and the old TZB was torn down. Now, people want the new bridge renamed to Tappan Zee, and to hell with former governor Mario Cuomo. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/104 "2023-10-12T23:01:35Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Everyone should call all places what the people who live there call them. I don’t think this is possible. English, for example, simply doesn’t have the sounds to pronounce other languages correctly. That means that, at best, we’ll get an anglicization of the name. Turin, in Italy, was an anglicized French name, where we pronounced each one of the letters differently than the French do. Then we changed it to Torino, which we can get closer to, but we still don’t say it with an Italian R, and it’s not reasonable to expect us to. As long as our name for the place isn’t incorrect or insulting, it’s perfectly fine to have different words in different languages, and simply impossible to avoid it. From : [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing:) **Beijing** ([/beɪˈdʒɪŋ/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English) [_bay-JING_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Pronunciation_respelling_key);[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing#cite_note-6)[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing#cite_note-longman-7) [Chinese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language): 北京; [pinyin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin): _Běijīng_ ; Mandarin pronunciation: [[pèɪ.tɕíŋ]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Mandarin) How many English speakers could manage [pèɪ.tɕíŋ], tones and all? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/105 "2023-10-12T23:07:33Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Turin, in Italy, was an anglicized French name, where we pronounced each one of the letters differently than the French do. Then we changed it to Torino, which we can get closer to, but we still don’t say it with an Italian R, and it’s not reasonable to expect us to. That’s why we call Deutschland Germany? I think you know perfectly well what I am suggesting. We should always be getting as close as possible with our alphabet. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/106 "2023-10-12T23:08:17Z")
I prefer Tappan Zee Bridge to “the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge”. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/107 "2023-10-13T00:23:38Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > > [@BwanaBob](#): > > > > Long Island also had a Mitchell Field named after same said Billy. No longer exists (as an airfield) > > The names are similar, but Mitchel Field on Long Island has just 1 L and isn’t named for Billy: > “In July 1918, Field #2 [of Hazelhurst Field] was renamed Mitchel Field in honor of former New York City Mayor John Purroy Mitchel who was killed while training for the Air Service in Louisiana.” > [Mitchel Field at the Cradle of Aviation](https://www.cradleofaviation.org/history/history/air_fields/mitchel_field.html) > Coincidentally, I work in a building that used to be part of Mitchel Field. However, Hatteras Island in the North Carolina Outer Banks has a uncontrolled airfield called Billy Mitchell Airstrip, that _is_ named after the flier: bombers from Langley Field in Virginia rendezvoused with him off Hatteras in 1923, and sank two obsolete battleships, to demonstrate his ideas about air power. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/108 "2023-10-13T02:31:06Z")
Spiders is a better name for a baseball team than Indians _or_ Guardians. And, for sheer audacity, I’d prefer the Raiders go back to their original name, the result of a fan naming contest > **[On this date, April 14: Why Oakland team changed from Señors to Raiders](https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/04/14/on-this-date-april-14-when-oakland-had-to-change-it-was-adios-senors-hello-raiders/amp/)** > > Oakland Lakers? Oakland Mavericks? Nope. Oakland’s second choice for its new football team name was finally a fitting one. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/109 "2023-10-13T02:59:29Z")
Chicago’s Fine Arts Building has nowhere near the panache as the Studebaker Building. At least they let the theater in the building retain the Studebaker name. And while we’re bashing Chicago, whose brilliant idea was it to rename the John Hancock Center to 875 N. Michigan Avenue? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/110 "2023-10-13T03:56:47Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Denali is the far superior name. McKinley sounds toyish and cheap to my ears. > > Similarly, Mt Washington (NH) is fairly generic, while Agiocochook has gravitas. > [@Hermitian](#): > > Agiocochook? Now THAT is an ugly name. Oh, no way. I agree that “Agiocochook” has a fairly ugly-looking spelling in English, since English-speaking settlers really struggled with figuring out how to map NA language phonemes to their own alphabet. But it sounds dreamy. AAAH-zhio-KOSH-oak, “HOME-of-the-SPIR-it”, dah-dee-dee-DAH-dah. Love it. Similarly, IMHO NZ has done a great job reintroducing Te Reo Maori toponyms that are much prettier and usually more meaningful than the colonial eponyms that European settlers applied to them. (And those Polynesian-language names have the benefit of typically being much more transparent to spell/pronounce within English than their North American-language counterparts, too.) For example, “Aoraki” \>\> “Mount Cook”. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/111 "2023-10-13T04:44:10Z")
It might not be on the Constantinople-to-Istanbul level, but Google, thanks to the domination of its Maps app, has proven it has the power to rename or even just invent neighborhoods that didn’t exist before, even when its naming data comes from dubious sources. It seems like the locals almost always react negatively to the changes. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/112 "2023-10-13T04:59:33Z")
Never been a fan of sports venues named after corporate sponsors. I was in Denver for a Broncos game at the old Mile High Stadium, and Denverites didn’t like that the new field (which was under construction at the time) was going to be called “Invesco Field.” In the end, a compromise was reached: “Invesco Field at Mile High.” Similarly, the Toronto Blue Jays will always (to me, anyway) play home games at Skydome, and not at Rogers Centre. Which is too easy to confuse with Rogers Place, where the Edmonton Oilers play home games. But the latter has never been called anything else, while Skydome started as Skydome. It was a cool name, and IMHO, it should stay that way. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/113 "2023-10-13T15:35:17Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > It seems like the locals almost always react negatively to the changes. Speaking of neighborhoods, there was an area near St. Louis’ Forest Park which had been given the dubious nickname of Dogtown. The name eventually became a term of endearment among its residents, and is still commonly used today even after the city gave it the official name of Clayton-Tamm for the two major streets that run through it. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/114 "2023-10-13T17:50:31Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Speaking of neighborhoods, there was an area near St. Louis’ Forest Park which had been given the dubious nickname of Dogtown. The name eventually became a term of endearment among its residents, and is still commonly used today even after the city gave it the official name of Clayton-Tamm for the two major streets that run through it. Yeah, there’s a pocket neighborhood near me called The Jungle. It’s a pricy piece of beach side property, but it was a Bohemian enclave back in the day. Locals prefer the name for that association. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/115 "2023-10-13T18:40:44Z")
Milwaukee has a neighborhood called Piggsville. First called Pigtown in the local paper in 1894, by the 1900’s it was routinely referred to as Pigsville, and later Piggsville in the 1920’s. By the early 1990’s the city officially renamed it “The Valley” but local residents still favored the old name so on modern maps it is often listed as “The Valley/Piggsville”. I think the Piggsville name has the most character, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/116 "2023-10-13T18:53:20Z")
Regina SK used to be called Pile o’ Bones; St Paul MN used to be called Pig’s Eye; Helena MT used to be Last Chance Gulch; Portland OR started off as Stumptown. Personally, I think all these older names were better. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/117 "2023-10-14T02:09:52Z")
Calumet, MI used to be Red Jacket. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/118 "2023-10-14T03:52:58Z")
There are a few that I understand why they were renamed but the old names sounded better. I like how McCarran International Airport sounds. Apparently he was racist and antisemitic but who remembers Pat McCarran? Much better name than Harry Reid International Airport. I had no connection to Fort Bragg so I don’t care that it lost its name. Fort Liberty is awful. They had a chance to call it Fort Gavin or Fort Merrill to honor it’s airborne or Special Forces roots but they dropped the ball. Fort Liberty sucks ass so by default Fort Bragg is better. No one knew who Edmund Rucker was or why they named an Army base after him. The old name let Army aviation soldiers to refer to it as Mother Rucker. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/119 "2023-10-14T05:51:31Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > while Skydome started as Skydome. It was a cool name, and IMHO, it should stay that way. Preach it, Brother Spoons, preach it! ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353/120 "2023-10-14T06:06:58Z")
Oh, you know I can. Just like a revival preacher, should that be necessary. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/place-names-that-were-better-before-they-changed-them/991353.md?page=7)