Every place, person and thing has a name, mostly applied locally and then eventually agreed upon my everyone else.
When the US thought of appropriating and renaming the Gulf of Mexico, it was trying to change a centuries old agreed upon name. It didn’t work. It got me thinking about how we call places and how others call them too.
In the areas of the North America where Spain or France claimed the land for a few centuries, the names are not consistently translated. Some are, some are not.
In Spanish the south central states are Misisipi, Misuri and Arkansas. Wait a minute – why is it “Arkansas” and not a more phonetic spelling like Arquinsau? Plus, there is no “K” in Spanish. Not that the English spelling is phonetic.
For New York, which has a large Spanish population, it is Nueva York. New Hampshire is Nuevo Hampshire. Who knew New York (pronounced “Jork” in Spanish) was female like Nueva Jersey (why not Giursi?) but New Hampshire was masculine. Or that Rhode Island doesn’t merit translation and is just Rhode Island, not La Isla de Rhode.
In Canada, some provinces translate, some stay the same for Spanish. British Columbia in Spanish is Columbia Britanica, Prince Edward Island is Isla de Principe Eduardo. Newfoundland is Terra Nova. Nova Scotia is Nueva Escocia. And there is Nuevo Brunswick.
The other names don’t change. The same is basically true in French, which is Official. Colombie-Britannique, Île-du-Prince-Édouard, Terre-Neuve, Nouvelle-Écosse, Nouveau-Brunswick. French has lots of budget for extra letters and hyphens. At least there is a consistency across languages.
On the other hand, Germany has an interesting name in English. People in Germany don’t call themselves German; they call themselves Deutsch. For the French next door, the Germans are Allemande. For the Poles, they are Niemiecki. For Hungarians, Német. For the Swedes, Tyska. Quite a varied range of names. At least the Italians agree with the English and use Germania.
Recently, there has been a lot of change in Western Canada as the national government works to complete reconciliation and the agreements with First Nations that sat on the back burner for so long. Some places with English names are changing to their original names before the Europeans.
The most striking would be Haida Gwaii formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. My favourite is in my hometown, New Westminster’s new aquatic centre. It is called Təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre. Great! but how do you say it? They did an educational program to help folks say it. The word is sea otter in Salish per the Qayqayt First Nation, the ancestral residents of the area.
Renaming is not new. The city of Nieuw Amsterdam changed to New York City with a change of ownership. A war caused Berlin, Ontario to be renamed for British hero Kitchener. There are many cities and towns throwing off colonial names to return to original local ones. Gold Coast became Ghana. Dahomey became Benin. South West Africa became Namibia. The city of Bombay became Mumbai and Calcutta became Kolkata among many cities in India. Port Elizabeth in South Africa changed to Gqeberha. Many others have changed names.
There are usually good reasons for these changes that are the opposite of renaming the Gulf of Mexico. The changes toss off the influence and residuals of the colonial foreign powers. The names change with change of ownership. Names should have local flavour because they are mostly used by local people.
But trying to change the Gulf of Mexico on a whim or an attempt to exercise colonial power, cultural appropriation or intimidation is not likely to stick without a clear and widely agreed upon motivation. Hopefully we have passed the era of imperialism and colonialism.
Names are funny things. When you have one, you own it, For better or for worse. And you defend it aggressively and emotionally more often than you entertain changing it. Unless you are Leslie King, Jr., or William Blythe III, or James Bowman (Look them up!). Or you are someone going into movies, writing books, or running from the law and needing an alias. There are many of all these folks.
Names are the basic element of branding. The same guidelines about consistency should be used when considering branding a new product or renaming a tired one. Be smart when launching a brand. I dedicated an entire section of Overcome AD-versity to the equity value created by a name.
Make the name simple – easy to say and easy to read. Own the URL. If you do, you have a claim to use your brand around the world. Look for connections with the product benefits in creating a name. Avoid exclusory words that limit additions to your product line or offerings. Consider meanings for your brand in other languages. We live in a multilingual society and you don’t want to be embarrassed with an unintentional interpretation.
Thinking ahead is always the best option, even if you think you have a great name. I guess it is too late for Walmart to announce to all their Hispanic customers that Walmart is headquartered in Arquinsau.
In any case, most of the world is already pretty satisfied with the current name for the Gulf of Mexico.