Battle of Spion Kop - Note About The Name

Note About The Name

Although the common English name for the battle is Spion Kop throughout the Commonwealth and its historical literature, the official South African English and Afrikaans name for the battle is Spioenkop: spioen means "spy" or "look-out", and kop means "hill" or "outcropping". Another variant that is sometimes found is the combination into Spionkop.

The reason why the older spelling is used internationally is because the name Spionkop originates from Dutch; spion, and not spioen, is the Dutch word for "spy". Until the 1920s, Dutch was still the official written language of the Boers, which is why the older Dutch spelling persists outside South Africa. Within South Africa, the spelling was updated along with Afrikaans spelling reform and recognition of Afrikaans as a language in its own right.