"They say Tapioca's a real tyrant... he's cruel and he's vain... In fact he's so vain he changed the name of the capital from Los Dopicos. He called it Tapiocapolis after himself."
Leopard of Sora O Kakeru Shoujo, being big enough to contain a city structure within him, takes pride in his city by, for example, naming all the animal species within him after himself. Crocodilius leopardus, anyone?
Kirby of the Stars: King Dedede has his name and face carved all over Pupu Village/Cappy Town; from TV channels to its money, almost everything has Dedede's face in it.
Also deserving of mention is Planet Vegeta, which was renamed after the royal line of the Saiyans' king (every male member in this family who ascends the throne seems to bear this name) after they defeated the Tuffles.
Before it became the more infamous Principality, Mobile Suit Gundam's Side 3 colony cluster was known as the Republic of Zeon once it broke away from the Earth Federation. In other words, Zeon Zum Daikun literally renamed Side 3 after himself when he reformed it into an independent state; the Zabis just kept his name to "honor"note throw off suspicions over Degwin's probable involvement in Daikun's death him.
Inverted in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann; Kamina City was named by everybody else, having been inspired so much by Kamina that they named their first metropolis in his honour, because it wouldn't be there without his vision of a better place.
In the Marvel Universe, Dr. Doom renamed Latveria's capital Doomstadt, also renaming several of the nation's other cities (to Doomburg, Doomwood, Doomton, etc.). Latveria's greatest holiday is Doom's Day, which is celebrated whenever Doom feels like celebrating.
This doesn't have to be a dictator in the French adaptation of the Disney comics: Duckburg is called Donaldville for no apparent reason, and Mouseton is called Mickeyville. The English names have the excuse that "Duck" and "Mouse" seem to be common names, but...
Mocked in PS 238 when Tyler mentions that he has problems with geography due to all the rogue island nations named after their supervillain rulers.
In some fairly old Superman comics, Lex Luthor gets marooned on some far-off planet and the people there somehow elect him ruler. That's because he actually saved them, and they rename the planet to "Lexor" in gratitude. He hangs there quite a bit for a while, mostly because it orbits a red sun. As it turns out, he likes being the good guy (this is the Silver Age mad scientist version), and even gets married. Then it got destroyed in a fight with Superman. He didn't take it well.
In the modern era, given the Corrupt Corporate Executive version of Lex's rather egocentric fondness for naming things relating to his business after himself and his position as the central person behind Metropolis' rejuvenation in many versions of the story, one gets the impression that the only reason he didn't outright force Metropolis to rename itself 'Lexopolis' is that Superman would have something to say about it.
An old issue of Hsu and Chan has the brothers create an MMORPG similar to Second Life in which the player lives out lower-middle class life in Tanakapolis. In the game, taxes, the monthly fees to play the game, and other fees are paid by leaving large sacks of money at the foot of two solid gold statues of the brothers and begging that the brothers would not smite you for their own amusement.
Hsu Statue: Louder!
Variant in Judge Dredd: out in the Cursed Earth, there's a town named Fargoville after the first Chief Judge, Eustace Fargo, and whose inhabitants worship him as a deity.
The Evronians, who live on planet Evron and are ruled by Emperor Evron the Eleventh to the Fifth. Justified in an extra, where apparently the first Evron generated the entire race.
Earth under Retro's control in Trouble Island is this. There's a scene where he tries to think of a name for it (among them being Retropia).
Films — Animation
In Megamind, Hal Stewart (the cameraman wooing for news reporter Roxanne Ritchie) is the "unfortunate" recipient of Metro Man's super powers, and calls himself "Tighten"(a misspelling of "Titan"). However, he decides to become a supervillain instead. He goes over the edge when he finds out Megamind is in love with Roxanne, and causes chaos in the city. One of the things "Tighten" proceeds to do is burn "Tightenville" into the cityscape of Metro City.
The Emperor's New Groove: In a weird inversion/subtle meta example, Kuzco is named after the historical capital of the Inca Empire, but the city's name is never mentioned in the show (though it would be in character). He does plan on building "Kuzcotopia," though. Still a subversion because Kuzcotopia isn't a literal new city, but an awesome summer home.
The Sponge Bob Square Pants Movie: After enslaving everyone in Bikini Bottom with his mind controlling Chum Bucket helmets, Plankton converts Bikini Bottom into Planktopolis, complete with several giant stone statues of himself.
Films — Live-Action
In the first Superman movie, Lex Luthor has already planned to rename at least a dozen cities with some form of "Lex" or "Luthor" following completion of his plot. Luthorville, Marina del Lex, etc. Humorously, he gets angry when his henchman tries to name a town "Otisburg", so much so he makes him erase it from his makeshift map.
In the Street Fighter movie, M. Bison announces his plan to build "Bisonopolis" once he takes over the world. In a possible sign that the producers realized Raul Julia was the best thing they had, he gets to spend nearly two and a half minutes strolling around the room and ranting about it. They are in the running for the best two and a half minutes of the whole movie.
Also, Bison Dollars. They'll be worth five British Pounds to a dollar once Bison kidnaps their Queen. Of course, trying to pass them off as currency before that happens wasn't particularly advisable....
Todd Spengo does this to an entire planet in the backstory of Mom and Dad Save the World. Whatever it was is lost to the sands of history, but he is proud to be the Emperor of Planet Spengo.
TRON: Legacy has TRON City as the setting of the main action. It's a subversion, though, since it was Kevin Flynn's idea, and Tron never was a dictator, more like a protector of the system.
Gamebooks
Book 1 of The Fabled Lands takes place not long after a civil war in Sokara. The capital, Old Sokar, has been renamed Marlock City after the conquering General Grieve Marlock.
Literature
Referenced in Broken Angels: Tak and his companions refer jokingly to General Kemp's HQ Indigo City as Kempopolis.
A variant is found in, of all places, Philip Pullman's Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass), the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy: it is mentioned that Iofur Raknison, being completely enchanted with Magnificent Bitch in residence Marisa Coulter, will soon create a capital city for the armored bears, and name it after her.
In Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40000Ultramarines novel The Killing Ground, Barbaran renamed the capital of the conquered planet after himself. After he dies for the massacre he staged, Uriel thinks it quite certain that the capital will be renamed.
In the Tunnels series, Adventure Archaeologist Dr. Burrows, while heroic, has a somewhat alarming tendency to attempt to rename anything he discoveries after himself.
Dr. Burrows: "The Garden of the Second Sun"... I shall call it "Roger Burrows Land"!
In the Warcraft novel The War Of The Ancients, the night elf capital is renamed Zin-Azshari, or "Glory of Azshara", after their queen Azshara. This was apparently not enough for her, who wanted to rename it "Azshara". Ruins of the city can be found in World Of Warcraft in the region of Azshara (hmm...).
In Atlas Shrugged, when Cuffy Meigs and his "Friends of the People" take over Project X, they rename its site "Meigsville", the intended capital of their feudal domain. It doesn't last long.
"...Well now! In 1868, on this 21st day of March, I myself, Captain Nemo, have reached the South Pole at 90°, and I hereby claim this entire part of the globe, equal to one–sixth of the known continents." "In the name of which sovereign, Captain?" "In my own name, sir!" So saying, Captain Nemo unfurled a black flag bearing a gold "N" on its quartered bunting. Then, turning toward the orb of day, whose last rays were licking at the sea's horizon: "Farewell, O sun!" he called. "Disappear, O radiant orb! Retire beneath this open sea, and let six months of night spread their shadows over my new domains!"
One Alternate History book, derived from notes taken during World War II, suggested that had it been taken and held, St. Petersburg — at that point called Leningrad — and Stalingrad would have been renamed Hitlerhafen, to symbolize the Nazi's ultimate victory over Communism and its two Soviet icons.
Ironically, in Real Life Stalingrad ended up being renamed Volgograd, during Khrushchev's purges.
Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels: Game Over introduces Henry "Hank" Jellicoe, who has a mansion in a location with his name on it. His company Jellicoe Global Securities naturally has his name on it. Cross Roads reveals that he has an airline with his name on it. As it turns out, all this is Foreshadowing to The Reveal.
In A Song of Ice and Fire, the noble house Arryn rules the Vale of Arryn. It is implied that the first Andal king named the place after himself when he conquered it.
In The Books of Swords, the Silver Queen rules the kingdom of Yambu. Her name is also Yambu. This may be a case, however, of the Real Life trope (see below) of calling a monarch after her kingdom, but even after she is deposed, no other name is ever given for her or her former kingdom. Also, her parents' names are never mentioned, so it is not clear if this was a custom or what have you.
A possiblenote We don't know who actually named the city and somewhat Narmful example from the Mobile Suit Gundam Wing novel Frozen Teardrop, where the capital of Mars is Relena City. It's also used to establish a Face Heel Turn, as normally the character in question would be the last person to found an Egopolis.
In the Vorkosigan Saga, the planet Barrayar is ruled by the Royally Screwed Up Vorbarra family. As Vor- is a prefix denoting aristocracy, the family name at the time of the original settlement was "Barra".
Fiona Patton's Tales Of The Branion Realm are set on Braniana's Island, named after its conqueror and first monarch, but everything else with the word "Bran" in it — the palace, the capital, half its monuments — is named for her brother, who is said to have built them.
Inverted at the end of ColSec Rebellion: After Samella saves the day, Cord suggests naming the newly-discovered planet that the central cast will be surveying for her. The rest of the kids approve, but Samella protests.
Zil Sperry from GONE wanted to rename Perdido Beach Sperry beach after he burns it down, kills half the super-powered freaks and then enslaved the other half. His plan doesn't even get off the ground.
Live-Action TV
In The Big Bang Theory episode "The Pants Alternative", Sheldon has an imaginary SimCity, Sheldonopolis, with Sheldon Square, Sheldon Towers, Sheldon Stadium the home of The Fighting Sheldons and Shel-Mart.
Las Vegas: Neither of them gets the chance to go through with it, but before her death billionaire Monica Mancuso planned to rename the Montecito Resort and Casino The Monica when she was the property's owner, while Sam Marquez toys with renaming it the "Samecito" when she later inherits the ownership from Casey Manning.
New Zoo Revue features an episode where some of the regulars are tempted about founding a new city, especially in naming it, Emily claims the "Emiliopolis Museum", Charlie Owl prefers "Charlinati", and Henrietta Hippo holds out for "Henriettaville". In the end, cooler heads prevail.
Tabletop Games
In the Ravenloft setting, the domain of Markovia is named for its darklord, Frantisek Markov. Strahd von Zarovich came close to this trope, re-naming the highlands he'd reclaimed from invaders "Barovia" after his father, King Barov.
Champions: When Malachite conquered a set of islands and established them as his personal fiefdom, he named his new kingdom the Malachite Isles.
Theater
In Peer Gynt, Peer dreams about creating a city called Gyntiana.
Toys
In Bionicle, Makuta renames the Matoran universe "The Makutaverse" after he takes over it.
Video Games
In several of the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog games, Eggman's stated ambition is to conquer the country/world and rename it "The Eggman Empire" or "Eggmanland." Its capital will be Station Square, which he will rename "Robotnikland".
One of the simplest examples comes from the Sonic Sat AM cartoons and comics: Dr. Robotnik takes over Mobotropolis and renames it Robotropolis.
The Tropico Series of video games. The Main/Playable Character, El Presidente, has the option of building monuments to himself, not only to please his or her own ego, but also to appease the Loyalist Faction In-Game.
In the OVA, Robotnik already has his city of Eggmanland (or Robotropolis in the English dub). The lights of the city even form a picture of his face◊.
In Rocket: Robot on Wheels, Jojo the Raccoon, tired of being second banana to Whoopie World, kidnaps the walrus and rewires the whole park. Towards the end of the game, you discover that Jojo built his own amusement park called JojoWorld. After thwarting Jojo's schemes, Whoopie World is renamed RocketLand after the protagonist.
In Final Fantasy VIII, Vinzer Deling, the Galbadian dictator, has the capital of Deling City named after him.
You wouldn't know just from playing Final Fantasy II, but the empire's capital of Palamecia is actually the last name of its leader, Mateus Palamecia. Not unrealistic, as lots of ruling houses either lent their name to the land they owned or vice versa. Too bad Everyone Calls Him The Emperor, and you only learn his real name in the (Japan-only) novelization, also that none of them seem to go into detail about which was "Palamecia" first, the country or the imperial line.
A familial example could be found in The Republic of Dave in Fallout 3, a small ranch owned by a guy named Dave, who took it over from his father Tom, back when it was the Kingdom of Tom. Nonetheless it is actually run on a democracy, with an election that can be rigged so that his son or wife can win, which if they do he'll go off to make a new Republic of Dave.
Chrono Trigger: With the old Queen Zeal and the pesky gurus gone, Dalton was quickly to rename the Kingdom of Zeal to the Kingdom of Dalton. He also captured and modified the Epoch to transforms it into the Aero Dalton Imperial, a flying throne fitting for the new King.
A prime example is the team the Slaycity Slayers from Mutant League Football, where both team and city got their name changed as part of the contract with star player K.T. Slayer.
In Dragon Quest III, this happens to a modest little frontier town that the heroes help get established. Over time, the village's leader starts seriously abusing their power, until, at the height of their reign, they're practically living like a king. The twist? Said egomaniac is the Merchant you convinced to settle down there in the first place and help it grow.
Played for Laughs in Dragon Quest VII: after you help Sim build up his new town to a certain point, he decides it's time to give it a name and has three suggestions for it. All three follow this naming convention, but are variants on your hero's name. Reject all three, and he gives you the chance to name it whatever you wish.
The King (Mickey Mouse) in Kingdom Hearts. Though he's on your side, you have to wonder about a king who stamps his silhouette on damn near everything in his realm....
Maybe it's not is silhouette, but the Queen's (Minnie Mouse), as Dream Drop Distance reveals she was the one of Royal Blood, combined with KHII showing Micky started as a boat driver...
Depending on how you play, you can name your alliance in Star Control 2 after yourself.
One of the worlds that your journey brings you to in Little Big Planet 2 is Avalonia, an Eternal Engine city created by Avalon Centrifuge. A rare example of a good guy doing this.
Rune Factory Frontier has a side character named Roland (which was changed to Nolan in the localization), the former king of the Kingdom of Roland. It's unspecified whether this is in effect or inverted (i.e. he was named Roland because he was to be the King of Roland).
The Warcraft universe has the city of Thaurissan, named by (and after) Sorcerer-thane Thaurissan when he declared himself emperor of the Dark Iron dwarves. Destroyed when Emperor Thaurissan summoned Ragnaros the Firelord, its ruins are in what became the Burning Steppes.
The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind has the cities of Almalexia (Mournhold), Vivec and Sotha Sil, all named after the respective members of the ruling Tribunal.
In Borderlands 2, it's revealed later on that Handsome Jack renamed the town of Fyrestone from the first game into Jackville in order to remind the Crimson Raiders of their failures.
Played for Laughs in Hyperdimension Neptunia V where the protagonist Neptune declares that there should be more "Nep" in Planeptune (as if the name of her city wasn't an Egopolis enough). She declares that the base height for everything is one Nep or 1.46 meters (aka her height).
One of the many parody commercials in You Don't Know Jack feature the transmissions of Ted, a guy who thinks he's living in a world After the End. In the first transmission, he says that he'll rename Earth "Tedonia".
A tiny part of Strong Badia is claimed by the Cheat and the Tire as "The Cheat and Tireia." (Yes, it rhymes with "diarrhea." And yes, Strong Bad noticed.)
Homestar and Marzipan found Marzistar (or is it Homezipan?) at Marzy's house.
Bubs' Concession Stand becomes Concessionstan-tinople.
Strong Sad takes over the House of Strong and renames it Bleak House.
Pom Pom lays claim to Club Technochocolate as the capital of his country, Pompomerania.
Strong Mad takes over the area around the stone bridge. Being rather dim, he names it "COUNTRY".
Coach Z's country (not shown, but can be assumed to be the athletic field/locker room) is called Coachnya.
The Poopsmith's country (mercifully not shown), is called Poopslovakia. It's probably best not to speculate on what it consists of.
The inanimate objects in the Field get them as well: the Cool Car is divided into Frontzeatserland and Hatchbackistan, the photo booth becomes Snapshakland, the stick becomes Stickstenstein, the brick wall becomes the Union of Soviet Socialist Repubricks, the fence is divided into the People's Republic of Front-au-Fence and the Backfence Revolutionaries, and the Blubbo's Whale becomes "50% Off Apple Pie Charts".
Played with in Bonus Stage, when Joel builds a city and names it Philopolis, after the other main character.
Web Comics
The infamous Sonichu comics are set in "Cwcville", after Christian Weston Chandler. (It's apparently pronounced "Quick-ville" judging by the audiobooks and the bad puns.) The currency is named after him (C-Quarters, W-Quarters, and confusingly C-QUARTERS), the only known radio station is KCWC, the drink of choice is CWC Cola note You'd think the official beverage would be NesCWC.), and the mayor's birthday is celebrated as a holiday, under the name of Christian Love Day.
The terrible country of Tyrinaria in The Order of the Stick, home to Lord Tyrinar the Bloody, and source of a good deal of backstory motivation for Haley. The problem being that, by the time Haley gets to the continent where it is located, it's not there anymore; countries there tend to get conquered, renamed, and conquered again every year or so. At current time, there's a Cruelvania, Dictatoria, and two Despotonias (East and West).
The Chaos Timeline has among others Haraldsborg (our New York City), Wildenhartburg (Chicago), Alexandersborg (Cape Town) and Fort Knox (Singapore).
Western Animation
Pineapple Pokopo and Pokoponesia in The Tick (who was ported directly from the Tick comics). Pokoponesia's primary export is pineapples, in what is surely a giant coincidence.
Not a leader, but Mutant League Football give us KT Slayer, the star player of... the Slaycity Slayers. Hmmm, must have had Dethklok negotiate his contract.
Azulon City, presumably named for — and most likely by — Fire Lord Azulon.
Omashu was renamed to the city of New Ozai, after the current Fire Lord, after being conquered by the Fire Nation. This of course implies there is another city named Ozai.
Omashu itself was, according to legend, named after a pair of lovers named Oma and Shu.
Kyoshi Island was named after Avatar Kyoshi, its most famous past resident. Pretty justified, since she basically made it herself, breaking her home peninsula off from the mainland.
In Re Boot, when Megabyte takes over Mainframe, he renames it Megaframe.
Dr. Drakken plans way too far ahead, to what he'll name certain places after his "inevitable victory". When he launches an attack on the Great White North, he plans to rename it Drakanada.
Shego pulls this herself. In the future where she takes over the world, she changes Middleton to Shegoton, Upperton to North Shegoton, and even the clothing chain store Club Banana to Club Shego, leading to one of quotes in the quote page.
Brain of Pinky and the... tried it a few times. He gets his own island country in a bid for US foreign aid, naming it Brainania. He then goes on to name every single feature of the island after himself (at least until Pinky gives him Puppy-Dog Eyes, resulting in the Fjord of Pinky.) In another episode, where he does end up in control of the Earth — by making a duplicate out of papier-mache and convincing everyone else to go there with free T-shirts — he renames the original Earth "Brainus", presumably following the pattern of either Venus or Uranus. The new planet, on the other hand, was Chia Earth.
Even though it's a country, Petoria, named after Peter Griffin of Family Guy, is only the size of the Griffin's house and front/back yard, with the entire city of Quahog surrounding it, effectively making it the smallest country in the world (surrounded by the smallest state in America, no less). To drive the point home, the national flag has the words "PETORIA" and a crude drawing of Peter on a white background.
Peter: I was gonna call it Peterland, but that gay bar down by the airport already took it.
And in a slight variation, when Peter decides to "annex" his neighbor Joe's swimming pool as Petoria's "newest province", he renames it "Joehio".
The Transformers episode, "Megatron's Master Plan." The Autobots have been driven from Earth and Megatron conquers a city. Megs: "I christen this city Megatronia One! Soon there will be many more!"
The latest episode of Ben 10 Alien Force concerns another reappearance of original series Big Bad Vilgax, taking place on his home planet/kingdom, Vilgaxia.
And of course, a meta-example: the show takes place in Danville, Jefferson County, Some Unspecified State. The show's creators are named Dan and Jeff.
Simultaneously subverted and inverted with the title theme park in the direct-to-DVD release Pollyworld. The subversion is the fact that it's a theme park and not a country. The inversion is that Polly Pocket's father created the theme park and named it after her daughter, making it a lot like U.S. fast food chain Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers.
In an episode of Sabrina The Animated Series, Sabrina travels back in time three times to prevent herself from being portrayed as a hero. Oon the fourth try, she travels back 100 years to turn the bridge from wood to stone; when she returns, she finds that Greendale is now called Sabrinaville, and everyone in town is now named "Sabrina".
In an episode of Gargoyles, Goliath and Elisa end up in a Bad Future where Xanatos has taken over New York City and renamed it "Xanatopia". Except not really, as it's really Lexington pulling the strings. Except not really really, as the whole shenanigan is just an illusion crafted by Puck. The actual Xanatos is above this kind of thing, really.
In one episode of Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot, Grizzle actually manages to take over Care-a-Lot, and orders the Care Bears to tear it down in order to build Grizzleton.
A veriation occurs in Jimmy Two Shoes. Lucius leaves the name of the town of Miseryville alone, but all the months of the year are re-named after him (Luciapril, Luciember, etc.)
On Stoked!, Reef attempts to name an island he and Fin are stranded on "Reeftopia".
In Exo Squad, the Big Bad Phaeton renames Chicago to Phaeton City after setting up his capital there.
Real Life
Alexander the Great was a serial offender. There were about a dozen cities named Alexandria, with the odd Alexandropolis thrown in. Some of them were given translations of his name to the local languages, such as Kandahar in what's now Afghanistan. When he was feeling really creative, he named one city Bucephala, after his horse, Bucephalus. The generals who took over his domains often named cities after themselves, like Antiocheia (now Antakya) for Antiochos and Seleukeia for Seleukos.
He founded almost all of those cities rather than renaming them from something else—or to be precise, he expanded certain existing settlements so much that it probably should count as a new foundation. This wasn't a vanity project: he needed somewhere to house the large numbers of of Greek veterans and civilians that followed his conquests. A prime example is the one in Egypt (by far the largest, most famous, and most successful of the lot): there was a reasonably sized fishing town and port city called Rakote on the site, but Alexander ordered the construction of a large, planned Greek-style city in the area around the town to serve as the center of the Greek community in Egypt and to attract more trade. The result was that Rakote became the Egyptian quarter of Alexandria, a bustling multiethnic port/metropolis/royal capital.
Histeria once had a sketch with Toast asking for "directions to Alexandria," with him answering each set with a "No, not that Alexandria."
Subverted with Emperor Hadrian, who traveled throughout the entire Roman Empire, commissioning buildings and civil works projects wherever he went. Many of those cities renamed themselves Hadrianopolis in order to enjoy the emperor's favor. Played straight with Antinoopolis, the city he founded in memory of his dead lover.
The Russian cities St. Petersburg (originally named by Peter The Great not for himself, but for the saint that was his namesake), aka Petrograd (renamed during WWI because it sounded too German), aka Leningrad (after Lenin), aka St. Petersburg again; and Stalingrad (now Volgograd). There's a move to rename it back to Stalingrad, not in honour of Stalin but in honour of the famous victory over Germany.
Prior to the revolution, Volgograd was named Tsaritsyn. If not named for a specific individual, it was still named after somebody.
Konigsberg had a double strike against it when the Soviets took over. It had a German name which translated as the King's City. So it was renamed Kaliningrad after the recently deceased Soviet official Mikhail Kalinin. The city of Tver was also renamed Kalinin but was changed back to its original name in 1990.
After Emperor Alexander I conquered Finland from Sweden, he relocated the capital further east (from Turku to Helsinki) and renamed the main street. Because his rule was seen as an improvement (and then that of his nephew Alexander II even more so), the Finns kept the name.
Those Wacky Nazis had the German city of Salzgitter receive the title of Hermann Göring-Stadt due to the industrial and mining areas built there (Goering was in charge of Nazi Germany's economic development) and the Polish city of Zamosc into Himmlerstadt (after Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS and Gestapo). The "Himmerstadt" name was invoked by a Canadian war bond drive as part of a larger mock Day Of The Jackbootin Winnipeg.
Saddam International Airport in Baghdad, now called Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) or Al Anbar Airport. And Saddam City, a region of Baghdad now renamed Sadr City. Under Saddam, Iraq was arguably the most extreme example of this trope, a role later taken by Turkmenistan.
Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo did this a lot, going as far as changing the capital city's name from Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo.
Byzantium was originally named after a king named Byzas.
Beijing was once named Khanbaliq, "city of the Khan", by Kublai Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan. Neither of whom was really named "Khan". Even "Genghis Khan" is a title in its entirety*
It roughly translates to "Oceanic ruler", which should give you a pretty good indication as to his ambitions
: his real name was Temujin.
About half the geographic locations in New South Wales and Tasmania were named after NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie, mostly by Macquarie himself.
Roman Emperor Commodus renamed Rome, the months (every month*
That doesn't mean he named every month "Commodus", he had many names
), the legions, the Senate and even the Roman people after himself.
According to legend, Rome was an example, with Romulus, but in reality, it's probably the other way around; Romulus and Remus were mythical characters who were likely named after Rome.
If Suetonius is to be believed, Nero wanted to rename Rome "Neropolis" and replace the Olympic Games with an identical competition called the "Neronia".
British imperialist racist Cecil Rhodes conquered a little patch of land (modern Zimbabwe and Zambia) in Southern Africa by slaughtering everyone who opposed his right to it, and promptly named it Rhodesia.
King Wilhelm I of Prussia named Wilhelmshaven after himself.
Detroit's main street is named Woodward Avenue, supposedly meaning "toward the woods". However, it and many other streets in Detroit were given their names by Augustus Woodward, who was Chief Justice of the Michigan Territory at the time, and was responsible for redesigning the city after a big fire burned it down in 1805. (His grandiose scheme was ultimately not implemented for lack of funds and population, but not before five of his planned major avenues were built.)note They are today Woodward, Jefferson, Grand River, Michigan, and Gratiot Avenues.
Non-country example: Roman emperors Julius and Augustus got their names added to the Julian Calendar as months (July and August), replacing the previous names (Quintilis and Sextilis respectively). Subsequent Roman emperors tried to do the same, renaming other months after themselves (and sometimes after previous emperors as well), but no other changes lasted beyond their deaths.
Williamstown, Massachusetts and the college it contains, Williams College, are named after the same man, Ephraim Williams, who left his estates to Massachusetts in his will on the condition that they use them to build a school, and that the school and the town its in both be named after him.
Herod the Great had a pleasure palace/small city created for himself and called it Herodium.
Mary of Hungary christened Mariembourg after herself when she was governor of the Netherlands.
Melbourne, Australia, was founded by a man called John Batman. For a while it was called Batmania, until it was officially renamed Melbourne in 1836.
Vaasa, Finland was originally named after the Vasa dynasty of Sweden. It was renamed 1825 as Nikolainkaupunki (Town of Nikolai) by Czar Nicholas I of Russia. It was re-renamed Vaasa c. 1918, when Finland became independent.
The Czech entrepreneur Tomáš Baťa founded several towns around the world, naming them after himself (Batawa in Ontario, Batadorp in the Netherlands, Batapur in Pakistan, Batanagar and Bataganj in India...) and centering them on his shoe factories. His half-brother Jan Antonín also founded Batatuba, Batayporã and Bataguassu in Brazil.
Delhi is believed to be named after Dhillu, the king who had the city built in 50 BC.
During his dictatorship, François Duvalier (Papa Doc) renamed the town of Cabaret, Haiti, to Duvalierville and started a megalomaniacal construction project. It was never finished.
Tigran the Great of Armenia named about four cities "Tigranakert" during his reign. The modern Turkish city of Diyarbakir is a Turkified renaming of the biggest Tigranakert.
Back when Saddam Hussein was alive and kicking, there was a suburb in Baghdad, Iraq called Saddam City. The very first day after the US invaded the capital, the locals changed its name to Bush City. I couldn't make this up even if I tried.
Bolivia, because of Simón Bolívar.
Subverted with Hoovervilles, shantytowns set up in the early stages of The Great Depression which gained their moniker because the residents felt President Herbert Hoover was responsible for their misery.
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Is a common trait of a Villain World. The renamer is likely to be The Caligula or The Generalissimo. Tends to lead to Please Select New City Name a generation or so later...
Sub Trope of Meaningful Rename.
Compare Egocentric Team Naming, Conspicuous Consumption and Airstrip One.
