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"Every gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople
So if you've a date in Constantinople
She'll be waiting in Istanbul"
The Four Lads, "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" (1953), re-popularized by They Might Be Giants in Flood

Whenever there's a fantastic Earth, or a world like our own yet very different, it's a safe bet that the author has messed with the names. Renaming things and places after what they could have been called is a very effective way to bring a touch of the exotic into the mundane, be it in The Time of Myths (Hyperborea for Greenland, Avalon for England), After the End (Amazon Desert, Empire of Denver, Whatever States of America), Alternate History or in another dimension.

Popular choices are alternate etymologies (eg. Allemannia for Germany), older names (Yamato for Japan), alternate names (Albion for Britain or Columbia for the USAnote ), names in the local tongue (Sakartvelo for the country Georgia, Nippon for Japan, Gitchegoomee for the native American name of the lake that Americans and Canadians know as Superior), things from local mythology (Jotunheim for Norway), possible corruptions and derivatives (Drontheim instead of Trondheim, though this one actually happened), and just taking the easy route and swapping some letters around. According to a popular theory, İstanbul itself is an example of the latter; the Greek name Konstantinoupolis got shortened to "Stanpol", which then evolved to "Istanbul".

A common trend in alternate histories with early divergence points is to have Remus defeating Romulus in Rome's mythical founding rather than the other way around, leading to the creation of Reme and the Reman Empire.

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

Best not to think about it too hard when characters from these different worlds meet, though. What are the chances, after all, that those two universes happen to have alternatively named or defined locations while maintaining a mutually intelligible language?

The trope name comes from the song of the same name written by Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon — a huge hit for The Four Lads in the fall of 1953, then re-popularized in 1990 by the cover version performed by They Might Be Giants.

See also Fantasy Counterpart Culture. Super-Trope to Planet Terra. Please Select New City Name often provides names to choose from (and real life examples should rather go there). Airstrip One is when a place is renamed in a dehumanizing soulless manner. Also compare Different States of America, which may involve renaming.


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Attack on Titan: The geography of the world 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 Black Cat's Fictional Earth are 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 "Jipangu"
  • Code Geass: The Britannian Empire, which encompasses a chunk of what used to be The British Empire. This notably doesn't include 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.
  • Cyber City Oedo 808 has Tokyo revert to its former name of Oedo by 2808.
  • The Familiar of Zero takes place in Tristain (Belgium), with other countries being called Gallia, Germania, Albion, and Romaly. Saito, the Trapped in Another World protagonist, is from our Japan, but doesn't seem to make the European connection. He does recognize the language being spoken at the school as French, however.
  • In Log Horizon, 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").
  • In Another World with My Smartphone: Touya Lampshades this when he learns from Yae that the capital of Eashen is Oedo (Edo being the original name for Tokyo).
  • Izetta: The Last Witch is set in a blatant mimicry of World War II-era Europe. The in-series names for the countries show pretty good research. Besides Britannia and Germania:
    • Livonia (Poland): The counterpart for Poland, is the name of a nation that lasted from the 1100s to the end of World War I. Livonia was made up of the present-day countries of Latvia and Estonia, and many of the nobles of Livonia became part of the Polish nobility. Additionally, there are some cultural similarities between Latvia & Estonia and Poland.
    • Thermidor (France): After the French Revolution, France adopted the "French Republican Calendar," which was decimal-based. All months and days had new names. One of these new months (between 19 or 20 July and 18 or 19 August) was called Thermidor. Furthermore, the overthrow of Maximillan Robespierre, which ended the Reign of Terror, took place in the month of Thermidor and is today known as the Thermidorian Reaction, the Revolution of Thermidor, or just Thermidor.
    • Westria (Switzerland): Westria is placed as Switzerland, and is similarly neutral.
    • Kingdom of Nord (Norway): Nord is basically Norway in all but name down to the Sognefjorden, and just like the real Norway they're also invaded by Germania and has their monarch and government taking a refuge in Britannia.
    • Romulus Federation (Italy): The Romulus Federation is mentioned as Germania's primary ally, and Eylstadt geographically sits between where Germany and Italy would be, which is why Germania is invading Eylstadt in the first place. In addition, Romulus is the name of one of figures responsible for the creation of Rome.
    • United States of Atlanta (United States of America): Atlanta is the name of one of the USA's largest and most influential major cities. May also be an allusion to Atlantis, one of the theories around it is that it was actually North America.
    • Louisiana: A representative from the country of "Louisiana" was present in Episode 8 which strongly implies that the United States in this universe never really expanded beyond the Atlantic coast.
      • 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.
    • Volga Federation (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics): The Volga Federation is noted to be a powerful country to the east of Germania which they have a non-aggression pact with. And just like in real life, Germania intends to break the pact. "Volga" comes from the name of the Volga River, which is the longest river in Europe and is considered to be Russia's national river that runs all the way from Central Russia to the Caspian Sea.
      • At the end of the series Volga breaks its non-aggression pact with Germania after Atlanta launches a successful landing into occupied Thermidor, similarly to how Stalin was planning to break Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and invade Nazi Germany as soon as they would launch their ultimately cancelled Operation Sea Lion. The ending also heavily implies that Volga and Atlanta are now headed towards Cold War.
  • Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress refers to Japan as "Hinomoto" which is an Alternate Character Reading of the kanji that make up the country's name (as opposed to the more widely known "Nippon").
  • The Place Promised in Our Early Days is set in an Alternate History where "the Union" occupied Hokkaido after World War II and restored its old name of Ezo.
  • Strike Witches 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 , the Scandinavian countries are "Baltland"note , and they just got lazy with Orussianote ). 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  Here's a map for reference.
  • Trinity Blood: Albion for England. The capital is called Londinium, the Latin name for London. Since this is England in the 31st century, it's unclear why they've reverted to old Greek and Latin names. Though given that the Methuselah essentially recreated the Byzantine Empire 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?

    Board Games 
  • Flintloque, a wargame set in a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of the Napoleonic Wars, gives the countries names of varying silliness, many of them based on mythical or ancient names (Avalon for England), and others based on mildly pejorative terms (Joccia for Scotland).
  • 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 the east Africa-encompassing 'Ministry of Djibouti.'
  • Scythe is set in an Alternate History 1920s Europe and uses different names for all the nations. Rusviet Union is the Russia/the Soviet Union, Republic of Polania is Poland, Saxony Empire is Germany, Crimean Khanate is Turkic Crimea, Nordic Kingdoms are Scandinavia, Clan Albion is the British Isles, and Togawa Shogunate is Japan.

    Comic Books 
  • 2000 AD:
    • Judge Dredd: 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).
    • 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.
  • American Flagg! 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".
  • Arrowsmith has the alternate earth version, with Divided States of America and a war between Prussia and Galia. The dragons are cute, though.
  • The DCU:
    • 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 Christopher Nolan is concerned, Gotham is actually Chicago — until The Dark Knight Rises, 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 Metropolis. DC eventually settled on Metropolis being in Delaware and Gotham in New Jersey, on opposite sides of the Delaware Bay. This conforms pretty well with everything that had been established beforehand (that 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.
    • In the Mirror Universe Earth-3 or the Antimatter Universe, America is called Amerika. Yes, that is the 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 JLA: Earth-2 onwards, which was when Earth-3/the Antimatter Universe was established to be a universe where the rule that The Good Guys Always Win was flipped and superheroism is the equivalent to supervillainy. Though this isn't an Earth where the Nazis conquered the world. That's Earth-10.
    • It was noted in the Marvel Comics/DC Comics Crossover Avengers/JLA (or JLA/Avengers, 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 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 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.
    • Kamandi, set After the End, has a world map that looks like this. The "United States of Lions" are perhaps especially notable.
  • Marvel Universe:
    • The Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes mini-series features 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 colonized by the British rather than the Spanish.
    • Captain Britain, particularly under Alan Moore, has a large number of Alternate Universe counterparts to the hero, each with a different name (i.e., Captain Albion, Captain England, Captain Airstrip-One, ad nauseam).
    • The Thing discovers in Marvel Two-in-One #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 rather had been sent to a parallel Earth instead after Reed reviewed video footage of Ben's time there and realized that a newspaper read "New Amsterdam" rather than "New York".
    • The Squadron Supreme limited series plays 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.
  • Nikolai Dante mentions Britannia and Amerika.

    Fan Works 
  • In With Strings Attached, in their quest for the first piece of the Vasyn, the four are sent to the city of New Zork on an alternate Earth. Locations there include Crooklyn and Harvem, the latter being the ghetto for the harveys, human-sized intelligent rabbits. The US is called Ameriga; England is Angland. And much to their dismay, though it's 1954, the Beagles have just arrived....

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Great Dictator has Osterlich, the pacifist country next to Tomainia. It's an obvious parallel to Austria down to the name with a different spelling: Österreich is the German/Austrian name for Austria.
  • The Lost Boys is set in Santa Carla, rather than Santa Clara, California. (Ironically, Santa Carla looks a lot like Santa Cruz.)
  • The Signal (2007) is set in Terminus, which used to be the name of Atlanta, Georgia, the city the movie is filmed in.
  • William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet reimagines Verona as "Verona Beach," based on Venice Beach, California.

    Literature 
  • Aegypt Cycle, 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.
  • House of the Scorpion and The Lord of Opium: Mexico has been renamed Aztlán at some point between the present day and the time of the novels.
  • The Hunger Games: 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 America (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.
  • In the Kushiel's Legacy 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 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) because of the alt-religious Backstory.
  • The Tales of Alvin Maker is set in an alternate North America. Many names remain familiar, but are in variant spellings, such as "Hio," "Irrakwa" and "Wobbish." All these are originally Native American words, and the familiar forms are transliterations by Francophone explorers. In this world, the Anglophones seemingly got there first, so the transliterations are a bit different. As for New Amsterdam, it never became New York.
  • Young Wizards: In So You Want To Be A Wizard, the main character reads in her wizard's manual about "alternate earths where the capital of the United States was named Huictilopochtli or Lafayette City or Hrafnkell or New Washington". For that matter, it isn't specified whether all of these are actually Washington, D.C. under different names. The capital could be located elsewhere.
  • Thomas Hardy sets all his novels in his native region of southwest England but with most placenames changed; he calls it Wessex, which is the name of a historical kingdom in the Anglo-Saxon era of England as well.
  • Robert A. Heinlein:
    • Job: A Comedy of Justice: Heinlein has a lot of fun with this as the two protagonists get shunted from alternative earth to alternative earth.
    • In The Number of the Beast, Hilda wonders if they crossed over into the universe where the fourth planet is named Barsoom instead of Mars.
  • The Conan the Barbarian books and related materials, set in what was constructed to be a feasible vanished age. Scandinavia is not called Jotunheim, but it's called Vanaheim and Asgard, which isn't better. Robert E. Howard claimed things to be the other way around: the different mythological names of people and places he mentions were 'corrupted' over time, becoming the myths we know of today. Some other examples are:
    • Acheron is the Roman Empire, a large Empire ruling over large areas that, after its fall, remained with certain cultural influence over the former provinces.
    • From Europe: Aquilonia is a cross between the Byzantine Empire and Italy (although in name it resembles the French region of Aquitaine, the name is derived from aquilo, 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.
    • From the Americas: The Barachan Islands are the Caribbean with their own pirate island; Tortuga and the Picts are like a version of the Native Americans.
    • From Asia: Hyrkania is Mongolia. Turan is Central Asia and Turkey. Vendhya is India. Shem is the northern Middle East (Mesopotamia and Palestine for example) whilst Ophir is Arabia (both names come from the Bible). Khitai is China (is the name of one of the prehistoric Chinese dynasties). Meru is Tibet (Meru is the name of a sacred montain in Tibetan Buddhism). Iranistan is Persia, of course, and Koth is the land of the Hitites.
    • From Africa: Stygia is Egypt, the name is the same of one of the rivers of the Greek Underworld. Zembabwei is Zimbabwe. Punt is Somalia and the Wadai tribe kindgom is base in real life Wadai tribe of Chad.
  • Tales of the Branion Realm, by Fiona Patton, is set in an alternate Britain named Branion, with a similar map. Since the series focuses on nobility, many of the original names can be determined from the titles. For example, the heir to the throne is the Prince of Gwyneth (Wales) and Duke of Kraburn. If it wasn't obvious from the map that Kraburn is Cornwall, Kraburn has a major port named Halmouth (Falmouth). The second in line to the throne is the Duke of Yorbourne, which from the map clearly represents York. Other countries include Gallia, Danelind, and Tiberia (home to the Pontiff of a Catholic-analogue religion).
  • Nation by Terry Pratchett is set in a version of the South Pacific called the Great Southern Pelagic Ocean. "Pelagic" means "open sea". The map at the front of the book also features the "Reunited States".
  • In The Big One by Stuart Slade, Halifax Nova Scotia is renamed Churchill, in reaction to the Lord Halifax-led political coup that sues for peace with Germany and touches off the events of the series.
  • The His Dark Materials 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 of 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 armoured bears). Lapland is also mentioned as possibly independent with a population of witches.
    • The Spanish translation also uses Latvia instead of the Hispanic name "Letonia".
    • The "Country of Texas" did actually exist: Texas used to be a Mexican territory, which later became an independent country; the USA annexed the Country of Texas shortly after that. Muscovy existed as an independent country before Russia as we know it today existed. The series also features Tartars, who are strongly implied to have their own country as well. Evidently Russian unification was rather less successful in the alternate Earth.
    • Also, since in this world America was apparently not only found, but also made widely known by Vikings, it is called New Denmark.
  • Airborn is an Alternate History where the biggest change is the rise of airships as the major form of long-distance transportation. The history only diverges from ours in the early 20th century or so, but one of the changes is the renaming of Vancouver (supposedly the airship capital of the world) as Lionsgate City. Several other places have very minor name changes, such as the Pacificus and Atlanticus oceans, Europa, and the Republic of Colorado.
  • The Years of Rice and Salt: The Plague killed off most of the Christian population of Europe, leading to Arabic/Chinese/Japanese/etc place names such as Yingzhou for North America, al-Alemand for Germany, Skandistan for Scandinavia, Nippon for Japan and so on.
  • The Merchant Princes Series features alternate versions of our earth, which people with a certain genetic trait can travel between.
    • In the first world encountered, North America was colonized by a Germanic people who worship the gods of Norse Mythology; England and Christianity never became dominant in America and might not exist in that world at all. Most of the action that world takes place in a feudal culture corresponding geographically to what is New England in Real Life and most place names are in some Conlang that seems like a mix of German and Scandinavian.
    • In another world protagonists visit later in the series, North America was colonized by the English like in Real Life, but history happened differently in at least two ways: The American Revolution failed or didn't happen at all, but another revolution in Great Britain did succeed. So North America is ruled by a Vestigial Empire ruled by an English king who doesn't rule anything on the east side of the Atlantic. Boston is called New London in this world.
  • Harry Turtledove:
    • The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump: This Magitek novel is set in Angels City, on the coast of the Peaceful Ocean, and just north of the Barony of Orange. On the East Coast of the Confederated Provinces are the District of St. Columba and the city of New Jorvik. Other countries mentioned include Alemania and Persia, as well as a Hanese restaurant.
    • Some American States have different names in Timeline-191. North and South Dakota are one state, called Dakota, Oklahoma is called Sequoyah, and when the Union captures part of Texas, they rename it Houston (though the actual city of Houston is still in Confederate Texas). And when the Mormons attempt to secede, they rename Utah "Deseret" (their original name for the state).
    • His more traditional alternate history novels feature this too, mainly for objects — nukes become "exploding-metal bombs" (in the World War series) or "superbombs" and "sunbombs" (Timeline-191), suicide bombers become "people bombs," the Molotov cocktail is the "Featherston Fizz," and the Army's heavily armored frontline combat vehicles are "barrels," not tanks. A laser is called "skelkwank" in the World War series (having been borrowed, along with invention, from the Race).
    • And when the superbombs go off, they produce a "toadstool cloud".
    • Speaking of nukes, element 92 is still named uranium, but while the USA names the next two elements neptunium and plutonium as in Real Life, the Confederate States Of America goes the other direction and calls them saturnium and jovium. (Britain calls element 94 churchillium.)
    • Roanoke, Virginia, is called Big Lick (justified in that that was the original name before the N&W Railroad renamed the town); and Hawaii is British-ruled and still called the Sandwich Islands.
    • In OTL Berlin, Ontario, was renamed Kitchener (after Lord Kitchener) during World War I. In TL-191 it is renamed Empire. After the US and Imperial Germany win the Great War, the US occupies Canada and restores the name Berlin.
    • His War Between the Provinces series is basically a retelling of The American Civil War in the West from Chickamauga on, only with the map reversed (the rebels are in the north), the colors reversed (because indigo is a major rebel product) and with names either given alternates or horrid puns. General Rosecrans is renamed "Guildenstern." Chickamauga is renamed "The River of Death," and Lookout Mountain, "Sentry Peak." Georgia becomes "Peachtree," and Selma, Alabama is renamed "Hayek."
    • Harry Turtledove and Richard Dreyfus do this in The Two Georges with Boston, Oregon (rejected in real life by a coin flip; you probably know the city as Portland).
  • Piratica tweaks the name of every country out there, as well as the nationalities (we get things like "Canadee").
  • Soldier of the Mist: Places in the ancient world are identified by the literal meaning/folk etymology of their names. For example, Boetia is Cowland, Athens is Thought, and Sparta is Rope in the "Silent Country".
  • The Lord Darcy mysteries are set in the Angevin Empire, an Anglo-French superpower in a world where Richard The Lion Heart's heirs kept their royal status into the 20th century. The basic geography is the same, but many regions' names have evolved differently. For instance, New England is all of North America (with Nova Borkum in place of NYC), and Mechiceo is an Angevin duchy.
  • Stravaganza: The main setting is alternate universe version of Italy known as Talia. Likewise, the UK equivalent is Anglia. There are also various city-states throughout Talia with Italian-esque names with similar meanings to their counterparts (e.g. Venice = Bellezza, Florence = Giglia, Siena = Remora). Remora is mentioned to have been founded by Remus, thence the name.
  • A Wizard in Rhyme, by Christopher Stasheff, stars a grad student from "our" world transplanted to an alternate medieval Europe. He lands in France, called "Merovence" after the Merovingian dynasty that once ruled there. Other nations are likewise renamed using historical influences: Spain is Ibile, Austria is Allustria, etc.
    • And Rome is Reme because, in this universe, Remus won.
  • The Chrestomanci books have a fair few. World 12A in Charmed Life has Atlantis (North America); in Conrad's Fate the Series 7 worlds have Ludwich instead of London, the Thames is the Little Rhine, the Low Countries are Frisia, and Moscow is Mosskva. Though in Series 7, Britain is part of continental Europe...
  • Tanith Lee does this quite frequently in her work. The Secret Books of Paradys are set in an alternate Paris, while The Secret Books of Venus are set in an alternate Venice. She also refers to the "Remusan Empire" in Cyrion.
  • Illium and Olympos have a fair few. Thousands of years have changed Ulan Bator in Ulanbat, and a mishandled black hole has made Paris into the Paris Crater.
  • In Eutopia, bt Poul Anderson, the various names of North America are used as shorthand for their respective alternate universes. The home universe of the dimension hoppers is called Eutopia, since in their history the Ancient Greeks colonized North America.
  • Arthur C. Clarke renamed Sri Lanka "Taprobane", (one of the island's many other names) and moved it 500 miles south to put it on the Equator for his novel "The Fountains of Paradise".
  • The Laws Of Magic, by Michael Pryor, takes this approach to a faux-Victorian era Europe — England is Albion, Germany is Holmland, France is Gallia (and its capital city is Lutetia) and so on.
  • In Thirteenth Child, by Patricia C. Wrede, America is Columbia, and the three systems of magic are Avrupan (European), Aphrikan (African) and Hijero-Cathayan (Cathayan referring to Chinese, "Hijero" being unclear but possibly being equivalent to Hindu).
  • Michael Moorcock uses this trope a lot in his alternate-universe and time-travel stories. One in particular, the empire of Granbretan (Great Britain) in the Hawkmoon books, is used as a Take That! against certain aspects of his birthplace.
  • Poul Anderson, in his essay "Uncleftish Beholding", played with this trope and produced a lengthy essay on atomic theory written in what English might be if it had never borrowed words or structures from non-Germanic linguistic sources.
    At first it was thought that the uncleft was a hard thing that could be split no further; hence the name. Now we know it is made up of lesser motes. There is a heavy kernel with a forward bernstonish lading, and around it one or more light motes with backward ladings. The least uncleft is that of ordinary waterstuff. Its kernel is a lone forwardladen mote called a firstbit. Outside it is a backwardladen mote called a bernstonebit. The firstbit has a heaviness about 1840-fold that of the bernstonebit. Early worldken folk thought bernstonebits swing around the kernel like the earth around the sun, but now we understand they are more like waves or clouds.note 
  • Cryptonomicon, which takes place in a world just a little bit different from ours, calls Japan "Nippon", which is, more-or-less, the Japanese name.note  Snow Crash, by the same author, does the same.
  • Dick Simon uses a non-alternate history example. After the discovery of the Ramp, entire nations are moved off-world onto other habitable planets. The US and Canada end up on a world they call Columbia. Colombia is not mentioned by name (probably because it's spelled and sounds the same in Russian), but, presumably, it went with the other South American nations to planet Latmerica. The other settled planets aren't as creative. Russia ends up on planet Russia, while European countries simply call their new world Europe (or, possibly, Europa).
  • In Ranger's Apprentice, by John Flanagan, this is used rather stylishly, for example: Araluen = England, Gallica = France, Celtica = Wales, Hibernia = Ireland, Picta = Scotland, Teutlandt = Germany, Arrida = North Africa (Tripoli or Egypt), Skandia = Scandinavia, Nihon-Ja = Japan, Iberion = Spain, Toscana = Rome/Italy, the unnamed Temujai country = Mongolia (Genghis Khan's name was Temijin), Indus (briefly mentioned in Book 10) probably = India, etc.
  • Caliphate, by Tom Kratman, has Europe morph into the European Caliphate in the 2100s. As a result, many places' names were corrupted if not outright changed. Like Baya for Bavaria, Grolanhei for Grosslangheim, Affrankon for Franconia, Slo for Oslo, among others.
  • Seekers of the Sky, by Sergey Lukyanenko, has, among other things, a still-thriving Roman Empire (now called simply the State). Thus, many city names hail from the days of Rome (e.g. Budapest is Aquincum, London is Londinium). God's Stepson (this world's version of the Pope) has his seat in a city called Urbis, which simply means "city" in Latin and is implied to be Vatican. The capital of the State has been moved to Lutetia (i.e. Paris). Russia was never able to throw off the Mongol yoke and its current capital is still Kazan' (Moscow is not mentioned). What is now Israel in our world is called Judea in the duology. Interestingly, the trope's name does not apply. Since the Ottoman Empire is still going strong, its capital is still called Istanbul. Languages are also called slightly differently: Latin is called Romanian, Hungarian is called Magyar, Turkish is called Ottoman, Spanish is called Iberian, French is called Gallic, Hebrew is called Judeic.
    • Surprisingly, this is averted with Vienna (which should probably still be called Vindobona) and Lyon (which Romans called Lugdunum). Both of these are mentioned by their Real Life names.
    • Despite the fact that Budapest is called Aquincum, it still has three main districts called Buda, Óbuda, and Pest.
  • The Treasure Of The Kapitana, by Vladimir Vasilyev, takes place in Days of Future Past. For some reason, many places have had their names reverted to their Greco-Roman variants. For example, Great Britain is known as Albion with the capital at Londinium and a rebelion brewing in Eboracum (York), while the Crimean Peninsula is known as Taurida (with Galeta [Yalta] as a major port city), Portugal is called Lusitania, and Germany is known as Almain (the English name for Germany until the 16th century). The Black Sea is referred to by the people of Albion as Euxine Sea (in Real Life, the British referred to it in this way until the 19th century). However, some places retain their modern names, such as Southampton (there was a Roman fortress settlement of Clausentum in the area). Surprisingly, Istanbul itself does not fit this trope, as it still retains its current name instead of an earlier one (e.g. Byzantium, Nova Roma, or Constantinople).
  • Craft Sequence, by Max Gladstone, is implicitly set on a version of our Earth with a very different history. Many very similar places exist on it In Spite of a Nail (although many places are also NOT recognizable as counterparts to anything real.) A few do stand out as clear examples of this trope— the city of Shikaw, situated on a very large lake, is one obvious example.
  • In Stephen King's work, we find the fictional metropolis of Harding, which is apparently a stand-in for either Chicago or Detroit. It appears in The Running Man and his unpublished novel Sword in the Darkness.
  • In the Scholarly Magics series, set in a world like our own but with magic, many of the place names are the same (Paris is still Paris), but some are examples of this (Glasscastle, a site of great magical significance in England, is clearly Glastonbury).
  • Partly subverted in Magic 2.0. When Martin goes back to Medieval England, he is shocked to learn that the English people of this time refer to their capital as Camelot. However, a fellow time traveler named Phillip explains that another time traveler named Jimmy convinced King Stephen to rename London to Camelot and his son Eustace to Arthur, while preferring that people call him (Jimmy) "Merlin". Since Martin's own time is unaffected (he specifically jumps back to ask his parents what the capital of England is and is told it's London), Phillip posits several explanations: something will happen between that time period and modern day to change the city's name back and to wipe the name change itself from historical knowledge; alternatively, since the entire world is a computer simulation, "Medieval England" may simply exist in a separate stream from "modern era", so changes to one don't affect the other.
  • In Destroyermen, after encountering the Empire of New Britain Isles, they learn that the Empire has a number of colonies on the west coast of North America (the Empire itself is based on Hawaiian islands). One such colony is named Saint Francis and is located pretty much where San Francisco is in our world.
  • In Julian, by Gore Vidal, Vidal uses modern names for many places that had different names in the late-4th century, such as for Mediolanum (modern-day Milan) and for Lutetia (modern-day Paris). One of the cities he does not do this for is Constantinople itself.
  • Isaac Asimov's
    • Foundation Series: In-Universe in "The Mule", the Encyclopedia Galactica entry explains how planet Delicass is renamed Neotrantor after Old Trantor has been destroyed in the Great Sack.
    • Pebble in the Sky: Earth has changed in the tens of thousands of years since "present day". Washington has become "Washenn", Chicago has become "Chica", St Louis has become "Senloo", San Francisco has become "Senfran", and Buenos Aires has become "Bonair".
      "Chica first stop, he thought. Largest collection of Earthmen on the planet. Washenn next; local capital. Senloo! Senfran! Bonair!...He had plotted an itinerary all over the western continents[.]"
      "In my time," said Schwartz, "there was a city called St. Louis. It was at the junction of two great rivers...We found Senloo."
  • In Beyond Thirty, the primitive inhabitants of After the End Europe have lost all knowledge of their history. The inhabitants of Britain refer to their island as "Grubitten": a corruption of "Great Britain". Much of continental Europe has fallen to the Abyssinian Empire and the city of New Gondar has been constructed on the ruins of Berlin.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Batman (1966):
    • For no explained reason, London is "Londinium" in the Adam West-era Batman. And its police headquarters is New Ireland Yard. DC Comics at the time (and mostly to this day, at least for US cities) didn't generally use real city names; apparently, this carried over to TV as well.
    • According to another episode, Gotham's (i.e., New York's) neighbouring state is New Guernsey. Which is New Jersey named after a different Channel Island. And a different breed of cow.
  • Merlin (2008): Albion pops up, as the series is based on Arthurian legend.
  • Fringe: The alternate Earth uses almost identical place names, except that some are spelled differently.
  • Charlie Jade: A mild example where one of the realities refers to the South African city of Cape Town as "Cape City".
  • The Defenders (2017): Alexandra Reid, one of the centuries-old leaders of the Hand, tells a Turkish restauranteur that his wife's ethnic dish is better than they made it in Constantinople. The man corrects her that it's known as Istanbul now.
    Alexandra Reid: Please tell your wife she makes it even better than they did in Constantinople
    Man: Istanbul, ma'am. Constantinople, that is its ancient name.
  • Creepshow: Played for laughs in the episode "The Man in the Suitcase". When Alex is arguing for stealing as much gold from the titular character as possible and fleeing the country, he suggests heading for Constantinople. Despite being in an immense amount of pain, the man in the suitcase still takes the time to point out that the city's called Istanbul now.
  • In the Power Rangers universe, the British were the first Europeans to settle the west coast of North America instead of the Spanish. History appears unaffected save for Angel Grove being the name for what we would call Los Angeles.
  • Seinfeld: When Elaine's boss Mr. Peterman has a nervous breakdown, he runs away to Myanmar, which he insists on calling Burma.
    Mr. Peterman: You probably know it as Myanmar now, but it will always be Burma to me.

    Podcasts 
  • Within the Wires: When it declared independence from the British Empire toward the end of the Great Reckoning, New Zealand retook the Maori name Aoteroa, along with Maori names for the island and cities such as Tāmaki Makaurau (formerly Auckland).

    Tabletop Games 
  • 7th Sea has thinly veiled Renaissance-Enlightenment pastiches: Avalon (the British Isles), Montaigne (France), Vodacce (Italy), Eisen (Germany/the remnants of the Holy Roman Empire), Castille (Spain), Ussura (Russia) and Vendel (a combination of several Nordic and northern European states). There's also the Crescent Empire (the Middle East), Cathay (East Asia) and an island chain to represent the Caribbean.
  • Damnation Decade, a Green Ronin d20 System RPG based on tropes from 1970s sci-fi TV and movies, renames everything: America gets the slight change to Americo, Gordon Lightfoot and Edmund Fitzgerald get their names swapped, and then it gets weird (Richard Nixon becomes "Stanton Spobeck," for one).
  • Tribe Eight may be the weirdest example. The game takes place After the End when a bunch of monsters have descended from the sky and humans are organized in tribes around "Fatimas", avatars of the Goddess. The game takes place in the land of Vimary... which was once Montreal (founded in real life under the name Ville-Marie).
  • Castle Falkenstein: Most of Europe - sorry, "Europa" - has the same names and borders as in our reality, but South America is Antillea, and the Atlantic Ocean is the Atlantean Ocean, among other things.
  • Gamma World: Early products are full of real-world place names that'd been altered, elided, rendered phonetically, or just plain screwed up After the End.
  • Warhammer 40,000: Though they haven't seen use since the unification of Terra ten millenia or so before the game's setting, there are occasional mentions of places like Albyon, Jermani, the Yndonesic Bloc and Nova Yoruk.
  • Warhammer is rich with Fantasy Counterpart Cultures, a few of which are named along these lines:
    • Bretonnia, a kind of Arthurian-influenced take on medieval England and France, likely draws its name from the French region of Brittany. There's also the sacred isles of Albion, clearly derived from the British Isles.
    • Estalia is Spain with its name being a slight modification of Espana, the native name for Spain. Likewise, Tilea is Italy.
    • Norsca, Cathay, Ind, and Araby are pretty self-explanatory.
    • The name of Kislev, a country correspondng to Slavic Eastern Europe, is probably derived from Kiev (aka Kyiv, capital of Ukraine and former capital of the Kievan Rus'). Its two other major cities (other than its capital which is also named Kislev) are Praag - derived from Prague - and Erengrad, a port city that connects Kislev to the Empire and Bretonnia - a dead ringer for Russia's Saint Petersburg, which was called Leningrad at the time Warhammer was created. Meanwhile, the main river of Kislev, Lynsk, sounds both like the Siberian river of Lena and the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
  • Fading Suns: The Empire's capital of Byzantium Secundus was originally named New Istanbul.
  • Shadowrun features, among other things, a Modern Mayincatec Empire called Aztlan ruling most of Mexico and Central America and an elven nation called Tir na nOg replacing Ireland.

    Video Games 
  • Deus Ex: The 2027 mod features the Russian Confederation.
  • The Quest for Glory series features Spielburg (Germanic town), Mordavia (Transylvania), Silmaria (Greece), Shapeir (Middle East), and Fricana (Africa). Scandinavia is called Jotunheim, but has the justification of having actual Jotuns.
  • Dragon Quest III's world map is based on the real world map, with locations having similar names to their real world counterparts. For example, Portoga is Portugal/Spain, Baharata is India, Isis is Egypt and Zipangu is Japan, among others.
  • Golden Sun:
    • The world map is extremely similar to Earth, allowing for some continental shifts. A lot of the names harken back to old names, like prehistoric super-continent names, for the areas.
    • Dark Dawn continues the tradition and just gets gratuitous and/or lazy with it. The Japan-analogue people got relocated to a new chain of islands, which they named Nihan. You know, a slightly-mispronounced Nihon? To say nothing of Champa and Ayuthay.
  • Granado Espada 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 Amerigo Vespucci.
    • Two of the main cities are named after real-life cities: Port of Coimbra is from Coimbra, Portugal, and the City of Auch is from Auch, France.
  • Freelancer takes place in the future. The ships, and then the factions that sprung up from those ships, are the Liberty [USA], Bretonia [United Kingdom], Rheinland [Germany] and Kusari [Japan]. The fifth ship, the Hispania [Spain], broke down along the way and was lost. You can find it, if you're so inclined.
  • Pokémon takes place on an alternate Earth, with the game maps being based on real world regions in Japan, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Spain/Portugal. 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.
    • The first generation is an even straighter example, explicitly being an alternate version of Japan's Kanto region, due to the series originally having an Earth All Along 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."
  • The Grand Theft Auto series has examples of these in most of its versions: The State of San Andreas (California and Nevada), containing the cities of Los Santos (Los Angeles), Las Venturas (Las Vegas), and San Fierro (San Francisco). There is also Liberty City (New York City) and Vice City (Miami).
  • Red Dead Redemption has New Austin (Texas), Nuevo Paraíso (northern Mexico) and West Elizabeth (California).
  • Warrior Kings is heavily revisionist (but not in a "this is how it should have gone" way), with the Catholic church becoming a military and political state rivaling Rome and the real Holy Roman Empire. To be more clear, most of mainland Europe is ruled by the Empire (The Catholic Church). Germany is denoted as Gallicus. England is Angland, the pagan warlords in the islands to the north (Svalbard?) are in Skane, despite the real Skane being in southern Sweden.
  • Valkyria Chronicles has 'Gallia' (the Netherlands). And, just like Castle Falkenstein, it takes place on the continent 'Europa'. Geographically and aesthetically it's very Dutch, with many tulips and windmills, though with some rather out of place deserts due to an earlier cataclysm, but it also shares similarities with Switzerland in its neutrality and mandatory military service.
    • The USA is called The United States of Vinland, after what the Icelanders called the region of North America they found on their expeditions, though ironically that was actually Newfoundland in Canada.
  • Civilization:
    • In Civilization III, if you founded enough cities to exhaust the list of names associated with that civilization, the game would start over with "New London" etc., but instead of "New Istanbul" you'd get "Not Constantinople".
    • The Rhye's and Fall of Civilization mod included with Civilization IV's expansions has a dynamic naming system for cities so what at first is Constantinople will become Istanbul when captured by the Turks. (Side note - It actually has Davao and Washington D.C. in the right places - 2x2 tile squares.)
    • Inverted in in Civilization V. Since the Ottoman Empire and the Byzantine Empire are both playable civilizations, and have Istanbul and Constantinople as their respective capitals, both cities will exist if both civs are on the board.
  • Fable is set in Albion which is one of the oldest known names for England.
  • Fallout 2 has New Reno. However, for the most part this trope is averted, with names like The Boneyard (Los Angeles in Fallout) or the original city names (Washington D.C. in Fallout 3). Regions tend to be renamed too: California is known as New California or the Core Region, the D.C Area is the Capital Wasteland and the area around Boston is known as the Commonwealth.
    • It's mentioned in passing that Sacramento is now known as Sac-Town.
    • One follower in Fallout: New Vegas expresses an amusing frustration with this trope. Being a Mexican Ghoul who's lived long enough to see the world pre-war, he's insistant you call it 'Tuscon' instead of 'Two Sun' as the local tribals have taken to calling it. And then for that matter there's the titular New Vegas instead of Las Vegas.
  • Valkyrie Profile has its own version of Japan named Yamato.
  • Sonic Unleashed has pretty much the Earth itself but with different names, such as Apotos for Greece, Holoska for Alaska, Empire City for New York, and Chun-Nan for China.
  • Assassin's Creed:
    • Assassin's Creed: Revelations: This comes up at least once, given the setting (i.e. Constantinople itself), naturally. Specifically, the game is set shortly after the Ottomans occupied the city. Most still call it Constantinople, but offhand references are made to some young people starting to call the city Istanbul.
    • Inverted in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. Basim and Hytham refer to Istanbul as Constantinople since it is still under Byzantine control but the Vikings including the Raven Clan call it "Miklagard".
  • Total War: An earlier version of the engine allowed for cities to be renamed by scripted events. One such case was when an Islamic faction would take Constantinople from the Byzantines. It would be renamed Istanbul. Start with Empire: Total War, the engine no longer allows for this, which is why St. Petersburg is already on the map while Sweden is in control of the territory (it originally was a tiny village called Nyen).
  • Sakura Wars is set in Japan during the Taishou period. Because it's Alternate History, however, the first character of "Taishou" is written with an extra stroke.
  • Crusader Kings II: When a certain nation or culture controls certain provinces, kingdoms or empires, their names will change to a linguistically appropriate counterpart, such as the province of Finland becoming Suomi when held by a Finn or Constantinople becoming Konstantiniyye when Turkish or the empire of Britannia becoming Pyrdain when held by most Celts, and this may also be done manually to provinces and cities. Additionally, with the Customization Pack DLC, it becomes possible to manually rename entire duchies, kingdoms, and empires.
  • Europa Universalis IV: When a certain nation or culture controls certain provinces (or in Crusader Kings II, even larger titles, like kingdoms and empires), their names will change to a linguistically appropriate counterpart, such as the province of Finland becoming Suomi when held by a Finn or Constantinople becoming Konstantiniyye when Turkish or the empire of Britannia becoming Pyrdain when held by most Celts, and this may also be done manually to provinces and cities. The Art Of War and El Dorado DLCs add a custom client state creator and custom nation creator, respectively, allowing players so inclined to make an Istanbul for any given Constantinople.
  • Terranigma has "Scandia" for Scandinavia in the localization due to Character Name Limits, though this is an actual older name. Also most of the names of real world cities are replaced with fictional ones such as "Freedom" for New York, "Nirlake" for Chicago, and "Loire" for Paris.
  • Ōkami calls its setting, which is Japan during The Time of Myths, Nipponnote  even in the localized versions, just to reinforce its Japanese-ness.

    Visual Novels 
  • Most times when a real city or country name is referenced in Melody, a substitute name is used (e.g. Romeo for Rome, Donutistan for the United States). The most notable aversions are on Melody’s music quizzes: real place names are used exclusively.
  • Echo (and it's related visual novels The Smoke Room and 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 here, with notable examples including Pueblo for Arizona (or Utah?), Batavia for Netherlands, Huxia for China and Southlands for Australia. Although not taking place in the same universe, Glory Hounds also uses the same country terminology.
  • Fitting for its pre-colonial setting, Lands of Fire 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.

    Webcomics 
  • Sorcery 101 takes place in an alternate universe, wherein the territory that is our United Kingdom is called Terra, China appears to be called Sipan and the USA and Canada are a single country known as the UPH.
  • Fan Dan Go is set in an alternate England known as Anglise. Its capital city is Londinium, and the city of Lonchester is rather larger than the Real Life Lancaster.
  • Out There does this quite often:
    • The main action takes place in Portstown (Boston), with occasional sojourns to Los Vicios (Las Vegas) or Oceanic City (Atlantic City). It is a bit jarring to see Boston called "P'Town," especially since in Real Life it's a nickname for Provincetown.
    • Also, Wally Green plays for the Arch City Starlings (St. Louis Cardinals).
    • Creator R.C. Monroe has explained that he does this because, if he used the actual cities, he believed that people who are actually from those cities would notice inconsistencies between the real-world city and the fictional city. If he used fictional city names, that would no longer be a problem.
  • Girl Genius is set in an alternate "Europa", but uses this trope inconsistently. Gay Paree is still "Paris", but the political geography has nothing whatever in common with Earth's, and Albia... refers to the reigning monarch, not the kingdom of Britain.

    Web Original 
  • In Atlas Altera, many countries have completely different names than the ones we know, and some names we're familiar with are used for other locations. For example, Brittany in this world is called "Wales", and "Iceland" is the name for the Svalbard islands. The "Black Sea" refers to the giant gulf dividing Europea from Siberea, while what we know as the Black Sea is called the Sperian Sea. Australia is called Tamiria, while the name Australia is used for a large island where the underwater Kerguelen Plateau is in our world.
  • Decades of Darkness:
    • To start with, New England is a much more extensive term, extended to New York and New Jersey after those two states join their eastern neighbors in seceding to form the Republic of New England. Later, it grows to encompass Michigan and the Canadian Maritime provinces.
    • Knoxville, Tennessee is renamed Columbia after the US moves its capital there after Washington, D.C. is burned down again. The original city was named for the Bostonian Henry Knox, which would not do for a country that had fought and lost two wars in twenty-five years to the secessionist Yankees.
    • Equador is in northern Brazil rather than the west coast of South America, a puppet state under the old Brazilian royal family created by the Americans after their invasion of Brazil.
    • Colonial cities and provinces across Africa, Australia, Asia and the Americas have different names. The Canadian province of Alberta is named Caroline after a different British royal, Liberia is located in our world's Namibia, the American film industry is based in the Acapulco suburb of "Hanseltown", the Australian state of Victoria is named Macquarie (Queen Victoria having instead been born a boy in this world; the Victorian era is instead known as the Edwardian era), and likewise, the city of Victoria, British Columbia is instead called Edwardsville. The last one is later renamed Brigham after the US, following its defeat of Canada, props up an alt-Mormon vassal state on Vancouver Island, while it conquers the rest of British Columbia and renames it New Caledonia.
    • Inverted, however, in one very important instance. The government of His Majesty, the Tsar of All the Russias, would like to make perfectly clear that it's Constantinople, not Istanbul.
  • The Fire Never Dies:
    • After the capital is moved to New York City, New York State is split up. New York City (minus Staten Island) and Long Island become the Capital Commonwealth (later the De Leon Commonwealth) while the rest of New York State becomes the State of Iroquois.
    • A much less prominent example, but the small town of Government Camp, Oregon, on the slopes of Mount Hood, is renamed Toshihiko after Sakai Toshihiko, commander of the Japanese-American Red Samurai Brigade.

    Western Animation 
  • Motorcity: The titular refuge is the remains of old Detroit buried underneath the newer, shinier Detroit Deluxe. The trope comes into play when one remembers that the most popular of Detroit's nicknames was "The Motor City".
  • Fitting its pre-colonial setting, Onyx Equinox 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.
  • Samurai Jack: 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 they are from the time period before its name was changed.)
  • The Simpsons: Due to being (at least) 100 years old, Mr. Burns is prone to this. For example, in "Mother Simpson", when Burns is at the post office:
    Burns: Yes, I'd like to send this letter to the Prussian consulate in Siam by aeromail. Am I too late for the 4:30 autogyro?
    Squeaky-Voice Teen: (pause) Uh, I better look in the manual.
    Burns: (groans) Oh, the ignorance.

"Even old New York, once was New Amsterdam. Why they changed it I can't say"note 

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