[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by Billi

desertblues, if you want to look here

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stambul...ung_des_Namens

I remembered it like you, but the article in the German wikipedia about Istanbul claims that this name was already used in the 16th century.

My German wasn't up to that, but I got the English version. When you think about it, it makes sense that the people who actually belong to the area would have a different name from the one imposed by the various groups who ruled their empires from Constantinople.

So changing the name in 1923 was really just an acknowledgement of this, in the same way that the huge monolith in the centre of Australia, which the 19th century English explorers named Ayers Rock, is now known correctly by its Aboriginal name of Uluru. (Though of course the diehards still call it Ayers Rock!)