Editing Endonym and exonym (section)

== Confusion with renaming ==
{{Original research|section|date=December 2022}}

=== In East Asia ===
{{unreferenced section|date=October 2024}}
Although the pronunciation for several names of Chinese cities such as [[Beijing]] and [[Nanjing]] has not changed for quite some time while in [[Mandarin Chinese]] (although the [[prestige dialect]] shifted from [[Nanjing dialect]] to [[Beijing dialect]] during the 19th century), they were called [[Beijing|Peking]] and [[Nanjing|Nanking]] in English due to the older [[Chinese postal romanization]] convention, based largely on the [[Nanjing dialect]]. [[Pinyin]], based largely on the [[Beijing dialect]], became the official [[romanization]] method for [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] in the 1970s.

As the Mandarin pronunciation does not perfectly map to an [[English phoneme]], English speakers using either romanization will not pronounce the names correctly if standard English pronunciation is used. Nonetheless, many older English speakers still refer to the cities by their older English names, and even today they are often used in their traditional associations, such as [[Peking duck]], [[Peking opera]], and [[Peking University]]. As for Nanjing, the historical event called the [[Nanking Massacre]] (1937) uses the city's older name because that was the name of the city at the time of occurrence.

Likewise, many Korean cities like [[Busan]] and [[Incheon]] (formerly "Pusan" and "Inch'ŏn" respectively) also underwent changes in spelling due to changes in romanization, even though the Korean pronunciations have largely stayed the same.

=== In Eurasia ===
Exonyms and endonyms must not be confused with the results of [[geographical renaming]] as in the case of [[Saint Petersburg]], which became Petrograd (''{{lang|ru|Петроград}}'') in 1914, Leningrad (''{{lang|ru|Ленинград}}'') in 1924, and again Saint Petersburg (''{{lang|ru|Санкт-Петербург}}'', {{lang|ru-latn|Sankt-Peterbúrg}}) in 1991. In this case, although ''Saint Petersburg'' has a Dutch etymology, it was never a Dutch exonym for the city between 1914 and 1991, just as [[New Amsterdam|Nieuw Amsterdam]], the Dutch name of [[New York City]] until 1664, is not its Dutch exonym.

Old place names that have become outdated after renaming may afterward still be used as [[historicisms]]. For example, even today one would talk about the [[Siege of Leningrad]], not the Siege of St. Petersburg because at that time (1941–1944) the city was called Leningrad. Likewise, one would say that [[Immanuel Kant]] was born in Königsberg in 1724, not in [[Kaliningrad]] (''{{lang|ru|Калининград}}''), as it has been called since 1946.

Likewise, [[Istanbul]] (Turkish: {{lang|tr|İstanbul}}) is still called {{lang|el-latn|Constantinople}} (''{{lang|el|Κωνσταντινούπολη}}'') in Greek, although the name was changed in Turkish to dissociate the city from its Greek past between 1923 and 1930 (the name Istanbul itself [[names of Istanbul#Istanbul|derives from a Medieval Greek phrase]]).<ref>"The Names of Kōnstantinoúpolis". Dünden bugüne İstanbul ansiklopedisi. 5. Ciltli. 1994.</ref> Prior to {{lang|el-latn|Constantinople}}, the city was known in Greek as {{lang|el-latn|[[Byzantium|Byzantion]]}} ({{langx|el|Βυζάντιον}}, {{langx|la|Byzantium}}), named after its mythical founder, [[Byzas]].

=== In India ===
{{Main article|Renaming of cities in India}}

Following independence from the UK in 1947, many regions and cities have been renamed in accordance with local languages, or to change the English spelling to more closely match the indigenous local name. The name [[Madras]], now [[Chennai]], may be [[Chennai#Etymology|a special case]]. When the city was first [[British India|settled by English people]], in the early 17th century, both names were in use. They possibly referred to different villages which were fused into the new settlement. In any case, Madras became the exonym, while more recently, Chennai became the endonym. Madrasi, a term for a native of the city, has often been used derogatorily to refer to the people of [[Dravidian peoples|Dravidian]] origin from the [[South India|southern states of India]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bag |first1=Ahana |title=It's time to end the 'Madrasi' stereotype |url=https://madrascourier.com/opinion/its-time-to-end-the-madrasi-stereotype/ |access-date=25 July 2024 |work=[[Madras Courier]] |date=October 19, 2021}}</ref>