History Main / IstanbulNotConstantinople

* ''LightNovel/InAnotherWorldWithMySmartphone'': Touya Lampshades this when he learns from Yae that the capital of Eashen is Oedo (Edo being the original name for Tokyo).

* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'': Albion for England. The capital is called Londinium, the Latin name for London. Since this literally ''is'' England in the 31st century, it's unclear why they've reverted to old Greek and Latin names. Though given that [[OurVampiresAreDifferent the Methuselah]] essentially recreated the UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire in Eastern Europe (even renaming Istanbul back to Byzantium), perhaps the British wanted to highlight that they've been around longer than the vampires by adopting even older names?
* ''Anime/StrikeWitches'' seems to exist in a universe where most European countries kept the names they had as Roman provinces. Britain, for example, is "Britannia". France is "Gallia", Spain is "Hispania", etc. However, some countries have somewhat obscure names (Germany is "Karlsland"[[note]]Probably named after UsefulNotes/{{Charlemagne}}, aka "Karl de Grosse" in German, from whose Frankish Empire were the realms of France and Germany born.[[/note]], the Scandinavian countries are "Baltland"[[note]]Possibly after the Baltic Sea, which borders the Scandinavian peninsula from the east -- though if that's the case, one wonders what this world calls Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania collectively in lieu of "the Baltic States".[[/note]], and they just got lazy with '''O'''''russia''[[note]]Though it could be based on the Middle Mongolian exonym of the country, [[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/俄羅斯 "orus"]], created due to Mongolian phonetics and later loaned to China[[/note]]). Somewhat justified with Suomus, Ostmark, Venezia and Romagna (Finland, Austria-Hungary, North and South Italy), which are based on either historical names for the countries, or the names of the countries in their native languages. Italy, in this universe, was apparently never unified and Venice still seems to hold some of its territories in Eastern Europe. Liberion is a pun on "Liberty", and is an alternate-USA (so alternate that even the continent of North America is shaped like a star), and Fuso is the Japanese pronunciation of "Fusang", an ancient Chinese name for Japan and used in real life. Introduced in other works is "Faraway Land" for Canada, and "Neue Karlsland" for South America.[[note]]Apparently an invocation of ArgentinaIsNaziland; given that Germany never had any American colonies while Argentina and most of the rest of South America are ex-Spanish colonies, "Nueva Hispania" would've made more sense.[[/note]] [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/StrikeWitchesWorldMap.JPG Here's a map]] for reference.
* In ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'', the five regions in the Japanese server of ''Elder Tale'' have their names derived from their corresponding regions in real life Japan. Ezzo Empire corresponds to Hokkaido (Ezo being the old name for Hokkaido), League of Freedom Cities Eastal corresponds to the Kanto region (lit. "east of the gate"), Holy Empire Westeland corresponds to the Kansai region (lit. "west of the gate"), Fourland Dukedom corresponds to Shikoku (lit. "four provinces") and Ninetail Dominions corresponds to Kyushu (lit. "nine provinces").
* ''Anime/CyberCityOedo808'' has Tokyo revert to its former name of Oedo by 2808.
* ''Anime/KabaneriOfTheIronFortress'' refers to Japan as "Hinomoto" which is an AlternateCharacterReading of the kanji that make up the country's name (as opposed to the more widely known "Nippon").

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': The geography of the world [[spoiler:corresponds to an upside-down and mirrored map of the real world, in which South Africa is known as Marley (which in this universe is a militaristic empire that dominates most of the African continent, part of Europe and South America), the island of Madagascar is named Paradis Island (and it's the place where the Three Walls are situated), a Mid-East Alliance exists and seems Turkish-Ottoman and an Asian nation {{Expy}} of Japan exists called Hizuru. For added bonus, "Hizuru" is pronounced identically as the phrase ''hizuru-kuni'' which means "land of the rising sun".]]
* Most of the location names in ''Manga/BlackCat'''s FictionalEarth are [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign entirely made up]]. However, Kyoko is one of the few characters with a Japanese name, and according to her character profile she's from the island country "[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Japan#Jipangu Jipangu]]"

* ''TabletopGame/{{Risk}} 2210 A.D.'' makes a number of renamings, from the good (Republique du Quebec) to the gratuitous (New Avalon). Scandinavia is called Jotenheim. The classic name is, of course, the east Africa-encompassing 'Ministry of Djibouti.'

* ''Film/TheSignal2007'' is set in Terminus, which used to be the name of Atlanta, Georgia, the city the movie is filmed in.

* In the ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'' series by Jacqueline Carey, the maps at the beginnings of the book show that it is Europe. The UK is named Alba, Ireland is Eire, Spain is Aragonia, Germany and the northern lands are Skaldia, Italy is Caerdicca Unitas - Venice, or a suspiciously Venetian city, is [[CityOfCanals La Serenissima]] - the Balkans are Illyria, Greece is Hellas, Egypt and the Maghreb is Menekhet, India is Bhodistan, China is Ch'in, Japan is the Empire of the Sun, Jebe-Barkal is Ethiopia and a bit more, The Flatlands are The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, Vralia is Russia and Drujan and Khebel-im-Akkad are different parts of Ancient Persia. France is called Terre d'Ange (literally Land of Angels) but that's because it's a ParodySue land for {{backstory}} reasons.
* ''Literature/AegyptCycle'', by John Crowley, approaches this obliquely: protagonist Pierce Moffett is obsessed as a child with the country of Aegypt--''not'' the historical Egypt, but its fantastic analogue in Western myth. "Aegypt" is the Egypt of imagination that was credited as the homeland of the Gypsies (the real-life Romani people are actually originally from India), of Hermetic mythology, and of the countless mystical doctrines that people supposed to have originated there.

-->-- '''The Four Lads''', "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" (1953), [[CoveredUp re-popularized]] by Music/TheyMightBeGiants on ''Music/{{Flood|TheyMightBeGiants}}''.

* ''ComicBook/{{Arrowsmith}}'', by Creator/KurtBusiek and Carlos Pacheco, has the alternate earth version, with DividedStatesOfAmerica and a war between Prussia and Galia. [[OurDragonsAreDifferent The dragons were cute, though]].

** ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': Gotham City, since Gotham is an old name for New York. There was a 19th-century book which, playing on American jealousy of European cities which liked to boast about their hundreds of years of history, was a fictional history of NYC, giving it the name "Gotham". Whether or not Gotham City ''is'' New York in the comics has varied through the years; currently, they're different cities in-universe, but writers still play with parallels.

** There's also [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Metropolis]]. DC eventually settled on Metropolis being in Deleware and Gotham in New Jersey, on opposite sides of the Delaware Bay. This conforms pretty well with everything that had been established beforehand (that [[ExpyCoexistence New York City exists]] and is located near Gotham, and that Gotham and Metropolis are also fairly close to each other but separated by a body of water). Both are representations of New York, though different views of it. Gotham is the seedy, dirty New York stereotype and Metropolis is the important melting pot of cultures major city of the world type.
** On the MirrorUniverse Earth-3 or the Antimatter Universe, America is called Ameri''k''a. Yes, that is the [[AllGermansAreNazis German word for America]], to highlight how evil this Earth is. The name Amerika however was only associated with the Crime Syndicate's Earth from ''ComicBook/JLAEarth2'' onwards, which was when Earth-3/the Antimatter Universe was established to be a universe where the rule that TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin was flipped and superheroism is the equivalent to supervillainy. Though this isn't an Earth where [[AlternateHistoryNaziVictory the Nazis conquered the world]]. That's Earth-10.
** It was noted in the Creator/MarvelComics/Creator/DCComics CrossOver ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]]''/''[[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]]'' (or ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'', depending on which company published which issue) that DC-Earth, with its fictional American cities (in addition to the above, there's also Star City, Central City, Coast City, Blüdhaven, and probably a few others) and ''also'' [[ExpyCoexistence having most if not all of the real American cities they're based on]], is actually somewhat larger than Marvel-Earth (Marvel often goes in for fictional countries on other continents -- like Latveria in Europe and [[ComicBook/BlackPanther Wakanda]] in Africa - but adds no major cities to its USA), thus leaving room for DC's fictional and real-world cities to co-exist.
* Creator/MarvelComics:
** ''ComicBook/CaptainBritain'', particularly under Creator/AlanMoore, has a large number of AlternateUniverse counterparts to the hero, each with a different name (ie, Captain Albion, Captain England, [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Captain Airstrip-One]], ad nauseam).
** ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': The Thing discovers in Marvel 2-in-1 #100 that, in a previous issue when he traveled into the past to attempt to cure himself, he hadn't actually created an alternate timeline but had been sent to a parallel Earth instead after Reed reviewed video footage of Ben's time there and realized the Newspaper read "New Amsterdam" rather than "New York".
** 'ComicBook/XMen'': In the ''Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes'' mini-series, It featured a SteamPunk version of the team known as The X-Society that's based in New Portsmouth, New Albion; a version of San Francisco where California was colonised by the British, rather than the Spanish.
* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Some of the Mega-Cities follow this naming convention, like Hondo City (Hondo is an ancient name for the main Japanese island, Honshu) and the Ruhr Conurb (named after the Ruhr Valley, the largest metropolitan area in Germany), while others are named after actual current cities, like Luxor (Egypt) and the now-defunct Brasilia (Brazil).
* ''Comicbook/TwoThousandAD''L The first arc of ''Kingdom'' takes place in the "cold place", Anarchticy -- that's Antarctica to you and me. Subsequent stories visit Tazzy Island and Auxtralia.
* ''ComicBook/{{Kamandi}}'': These AfterTheEnd stories have a world map that looks like [[http://www.thecomicshop.com.au/site2/jpgs/mapfinished.jpg This]]. The "United States of Lions" are perhaps especially notable.
* ''ComicBook/NikolaiDante'' mentioned Britannia and Amerika.
* The ''ComicBook/SquadronSupreme'' limited series played this trope to the hilt, with ''every'' geographic location renamed from its real-life counterpart. Mt. Rushmore becomes Presidents' Mountain, New York City is Cosmopolis in the state of New Troy, Washington D.C. becomes Capitol City, Magelland, and on and on and on.
* ''Comicbook/AmericanFlagg'' often uses this trope for throwaway gags that highlight the intriguing ways in which the world has changed without going into great detail about it - e.g. "the People's Republic of Great Britain."

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' takes place on an alternate Earth, with the game maps being based on real world regions in Japan, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. While some liberties are taken on occasion, the most blatant being a desert in the middle of a region based on the New York City metropolitan area, every location in a given game tends to have an existing counterpart in our reality.

As a general rule for most {{Anime}} featuring an alternate Japan (specifically those that take place during the [[JidaiGeki Feudal Period]]), the country will often be renamed "Hinomoto", an alternate reading of the kanji for "Japan".

* ''VideoGame/GranadoEspada'' plays in a fantasy, monster-overrun version of America, which was named after the two explorers Granado and (drum roll, please) Espada, paralleling how real-world's America is named after the explorer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci Amerigo Vespucci]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': In one episode, both Jack and the owners of a house he is a guest at refer to Tokyo by its old name, Edo. (Justified, of course, as both he and them [[FishOutOfTemporalWater are from the time period before its name was changed]].)

* The ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' series executes this very impressively, using many alternate etymologies and extending to objects in addition to lands. This includes Anglia (England, although England, English and "Brytain" instead of Britain are also mentioned. Scotland also exists but it's not addressed whether it's part the same country as England in that universe), Muscovy (Russia), Nippon (Japan), skraelings instead of Inuit, the Peaceable Ocean, and the country of Texas in New Denmark. This also applies to objects such bas atomcraft, naphtha lamps, gyrocopters, anbaric lights ("electric" comes from a word for "amber"), and chocolatl (which is closer to the original Aztec word). Scandinavia ''is not'' Jotunheim, (it's called the Scandinavian Empire instead!) and the Svalbard archipelago is still the Svalbard archipelago (but it's an independent kingdom controlled by [[BearsAreBadNews armoured bears]]). Lapland is also mentioned as possibly independent with a population of witches.

* ''VisualNovel/{{Echo}}'' (and it's related visual novels ''VisualNovel/TheSmokeRoom'' and ''VisualNovel/{{Arches}}'') thrives on this. It is essentially our world with anthropomorphic animals, but the place names have alternate names for some reason. A fully comprehensive list can be found [[https://echoproject.fandom.com/wiki/Place_names_in_the_Echo_Universe here]], with notable examples including Pueblo for Arizona (or Utah?), Huxia for China and Southlands for Australia.

* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' calls its Japanese-mythology filled setting Nippon, the Japanese name for Japan, even in the localized versions, just to reinforce its Japanese-ness.

* Fitting for its pre-colonial setting , ''VisualNovel/LandsOfFire'' uses none of the modern Australian place names, with the indigenous names being used instead. For example Alice Springs is the Arrernte name Mparntwe, Tasmania is Iutruwita and Mount Conner is Artilla.

* Fitting its pre-colonial setting ''WesternAnimation/OnyxEquinox'' uses none of the modern Mexican names, instead relying on the indigenous names for locations, properly pronounced at that. For example, Monte Alban is rendered in Zapotec Danibáan.

* ''Anime/InAnotherWorldWithMySmartphone'': Touya Lampshades this when he learns from Yae that the capital of Eashen is Oedo (Edo being the original name for Tokyo).

* ''VisualNovel/{{Echo}}'' thrives on this. It is essentially our world with anthropomorphic animals, but the place names have alternate names for reason. For example the titular town is located in the Arizona Utah region, here called Pueblo, Britian is "The Isles", China is Huaxia, et cetera.

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Panem is set in what was once called North America after an unexplained apocalypse. The characters are well aware of their history (for the most part) as Katniss knows that Panem was once called North America, and District 12 was in a place called Appalachia. The word "Panem" itself has two sources: As a modification of '''''Pan Am'''erica'' (Loosely, "All of America") and also the Latin ''panem et circenses'' (Bread and Circuses) from the way the Capitol maintains control through the titular games.

** From Europe: Aquilonia is a cross between the Byzantine Empire and Italy (it's the name of a French region though, although ''aquilo'' is Latin for "north wind". Argos is Ancient Greece. Brythunia is Britain (culturally, geographically is located in what is now Poland). Corinthia is Athens. Hyperborea, Russia and Finland. Zingara is Spain, a similar country is Zamora, another Iberian-like country and the native land of the Gypsies.

** [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue The first generation]] is an even a straighter example, explicitly being an alternate version of Japan's Kanto region, due to the series [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness originally having an]] EarthAllAlong approach to the setting. One of Mew's Pokedex entries mentions it being from South America, while Arcanine's Pokedex entry states that it's a legend in China. Lt. Surge was even stated to be an American military veteran and had the nickname "The Lightning American."

** On the MirrorUniverse Earth-3 or the Antimatter Universe, America is called Ameri''k''a. Yes, that is the [[AllGermansAreNazis German word for America]], to highlight how evil this Earth is. The name Amerika however was only associated with the Crime Syndicate's Earth from ''ComicBook/JLAEarth2'' onwards, which was when Earth-3/the Antimatter Universe was established to be a universe where the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality was flipped and superheroism is the equivalent to supervillainy. Though this isn't an Earth where [[AlternateHistoryNaziVictory the Nazis conquered the world]]. That's Earth-10.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': Gotham City, since Gotham is an old name for New York. There was a 19th-century book which, playing on American jealousy of European cities which liked to boast about their hundreds of years of history, was a fictional history of NYC, giving it the name "Gotham". Whether or not Gotham City ''is'' New York in the comics has varied through the years; currently, they're different cities in-universe, but writers still play with parallels.
** As far as [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy Christopher Nolan]] is concerned, Gotham is actually UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} -- until ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', anyway.
** In the novelization of ''No Man's Land'', New York is explicitly stated to be separate, incidentally, and implied to be slightly smaller and nearby.
** There's also [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Metropolis]]. DC eventually settled on Metropolis being in Deleware and Gotham in New Jersey, on opposite sides of the Delaware Bay. This conforms pretty well with everything that had been established beforehand (that [[ExpyCoexistence New York City exists]] and is located near Gotham, and that Gotham and Metropolis are also fairly close to each other but separated by a body of water).
** Both are representations of New York, though different views of it. Gotham is the seedy, dirty New York stereotype and Metropolis is the important melting pot of cultures major city of the world type.

-->-- '''The Four Lads''', "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" (1953), [[CoveredUp re-popularized]] by Music/TheyMightBeGiants on ''Music/{{Flood}}''.

Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamples, please. There are far too many name changes across history.

NoRealLifeExamples, please. There are far too many name changes across history.

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': The Britannian Empire, which encompasses a chunk of what used to be UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire. (Notably without Britain itself, but with ''the entirety of the Americas'' to make up for it. The backstory is that it ''is'' the British Empire, with the alternate history being that the American Revolution failed but Britain then lost the Napoleonic Wars, resulting in the royal family taking refuge in the American colonies and renaming themselves as the Holy Britannian Empire.)

* ''Anime/StrikeWitches'' seems to exist in a universe where most European countries kept the names they had as Roman provinces. Britain, for example, is "Britannia". France is "Gallia", Spain is "Hispania", etc. However, some countries have somewhat obscure names (Germany is "Karlsland"[[note]]Probably named after UsefulNotes/{{Charlemagne}}, aka "Karl de Grosse" in German, from whose Frankish Empire were the realms of France and Germany born.[[/note]], the Scandinavian countries are "Baltland"[[note]]Possibly after the Baltic Sea, which borders the Scandinavian peninsula from the east -- though if that's the case, one wonders what this world calls Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania collectively in lieu of "the Baltic States".[[/note]], and they just got lazy with '''O'''''russia''[[note]]Though it could be based on the Middle Mongolian exonym of the country, [[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/俄羅斯 "orus"]], created due to Mongolian phonetics and later loaned to China[[/note]]). Somewhat justified with Suomus, Ostmark, Venezia and Romagna (Finland, Austria-Hungary, North and South Italy), which are based on either historical names for the countries, or the names of the countries in their native languages. Italy, in this universe, was apparently never unified and Venice still seems to hold some of its territories in Eastern Europe. Liberion is a pun on "Liberty", and is an alternate-USA, and Fuso is the Japanese pronunciation of "Fusang", an ancient Chinese name for Japan and used in real life. Introduced in other works is "Faraway Land" for Canada, and "Neue Karlsland" for South America.[[note]]Apparnetly an invokation of ArgentinaIsNaziland; given that Germany never had any American colonies while Argentina and most of the rest of South America are ex-Spanish colonies, "Nueva Hispania" would've made more sense.[[/note]] [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/StrikeWitchesWorldMap.JPG Here's a map]] for reference.

* ''Anime/IzettaTheLastWitch'' is set in a blatant mimicry of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}. The in-series names for the countries [[ShownTheirWork show pretty good research]]. Besides [[UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom Britannia]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} Germania]]:
** Livonia (UsefulNotes/{{Poland}}): The counterpart for Poland, is the name of a nation that lasted from the 1100s to the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Livonia was made up of the present-day countries of UsefulNotes/{{Latvia}} and UsefulNotes/{{Estonia}}, and many of the nobles of Livonia became part of the Polish nobility. Additionally, there are some cultural similarities between the Latvia and Estonia and Poland.

*** Alternatively, it's the alternative name for Canada as a healthy proportion of French Colonial Louisiana was part of Canada in the early 18th Century.

** There's also [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Metropolis]].

** It was noted in the Creator/MarvelComics/Creator/DCComics CrossOver ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]]''/''[[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]]'' (or ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'', depending on which company published which issue) that DC-Earth, with its fictional American cities (in addition to the above, there's also Star City, Central City, Coast City, Blüdhaven, and probably a few others), is actually somewhat larger than Marvel-Earth (Marvel often goes in for fictional countries on other continents -- like Latveria in Europe and [[ComicBook/BlackPanther Wakanda]] in Africa - but adds no major cities to its USA), thus leaving room for DC's fictional and real-world cities to co-exist.

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': The Britannian Empire, which encompasses a chunk of what used to be UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire. (Notably without Britain itself, but with ''the entirety of the Americas'' to make up for it.)

* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'': Albion for England. The capital is called Londinium, the Latin name for London.
* ''Anime/StrikeWitches'' seems to exist in a universe where most European countries kept the names they had as Roman provinces. Britain, for example, is "Britannia". France is "Gallia", Spain is "Hispania", etc. However, some countries have somewhat obscure names (Germany is "Karlsland"[[note]]Probably named after UsefulNotes/{{Charlemagne}}, aka "Karl de Grosse" in German, from whose Frankish Empire were the realms of France and Germany born.[[/note]], the Scandinavian countries are "Baltland"[[note]]Possibly after the Baltic Sea, which borders the Scandinavian peninsula from the east -- though if that's the case, one wonders what this world calls Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania collectively in lieu of "the Baltic States".[[/note]], and they just got lazy with '''O'''''russia''[[note]]Though it could be based on the Middle Mongolian exonym of the country, [[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/俄羅斯 "orus"]], created due to Mongolian phonetics and later loaned to China[[/note]]). Somewhat justified with Suomus, Ostmark, Venezia and Romagna (Finland, Austria-Hungary, North and South Italy), which are based on either historical names for the countries, or the names of the countries in their native languages. Italy, in this universe, was apparently never unified and Venice still seems to hold some of its territories in Eastern Europe. Liberion is a pun on "Liberty", and is an alternate-USA, and Fuso is the Japanese pronunciation of "Fusang", an ancient Chinese name for Japan. Introduced in other works is "Faraway Land" for Canada, and "Neue Karlsland" for South America. [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/StrikeWitchesWorldMap.JPG Here's a map]] for reference.

* ''Anime/IzettaTheLastWitch'' is set in a blatant mimicry of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}. [[IstanbulNotConstantinople The in-series names for the countries]] [[ShownTheirWork show pretty good research]]. Besides [[UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom Britannia]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} Germania]]: