Danish Exonyms

Danish Exonyms

Danish language exonyms for non-Danish speaking locations exist, primarily in Europe, but many of these are not commonly used anymore, with a few notable exceptions. Rom (Rome), Lissabon (Lisbon), Sankt Petersborg (St Petersburg) and Prag (Prague) are still compulsory, while e.g. Venedig is more common than Venezia. In the decades following World War II, there has been a strong tendency towards replacing Danish exonyms with the native equivalent used in the foreign country itself. Possibly this is because many of these Danish forms (e.g. for names in Belgium, Italy and Eastern Europe) were imported from German.

Until recently, it was official Danish policy to use Danish exonyms on road signs if Danish forms were commonly used and known. This has, however, been changed following a change in international agreements. Currently, one can still see Danish road signs pointing towards Flensborg and Hamborg across the border, however signs with Nibøl have been replaced for the sake of Niebüll. Signs leading to the Sound Bridge usually have Malmø with Danish spelling.

In Southern Schleswig, the region south of the Danish-German border, a set of original (or, in some cases, reconstructed) Danish placenames exists alongside with the German names, just like most North Slesvig placenames have German counterparts dating from the period under Prussian rule (1864–1920). The Danish placenames in Southern Schleswig are used by the local Danish minority and their media, while some in Denmark may avoid their usage for political reasons. The usage of German placenames in North Slesvig is similarly preferred by the local German minority (when speaking and writing German), but traditionally shunned by many Danes in the region. From 2008, municipalities in Schleswig-Holstein have been allowed to double their town signs with the official minority languages: Danish, Frisian and Low German. So far, the city of Flensburg has been the only municipality to introduce bilingual German/Danish signs.

Danish placenames dating from the colonial era exist for almost all major settlements in Greenland. Some of the places in question were founded as settlements under a Danish name, while others were originally Greenlandic toponyms. Very frequently, the Danish and Greenlandic names have different etymologies; while the former are often named after settlers or explorers, the latter usually describe geographical features. In 1983, a Danish law officially transferred the naming authority to the Greenlandic Home Rule. During the years before and after that, a complete set of Greenlandic placenames have ousted the former traditional Danish names. Danish names in Greenland are now mostly known or used by older-generation Danish-speakers or by Danes living in Greenland. Until recently, Greenland was still - both officially and de facto - bilingual, but Greenlandic has assumed the status of sole official language in Greenland, following the island's recent change from "hjemmestyre" (home rule) to "selvstyre" (autonomy).

Faroese placenames were Danicised in an era when no Faroese orthography existed, but the Danish names were replaced by Faroese ones during the first half of the 20th century (somewhat later on maps). Today only Thorshavn is commonly used (alongside with the Faroese Tórshavn and the hybrid Torshavn).

An example of radical use of Danish exonyms can be found in a great number of street names on the island of Amager, a part of Copenhagen. The city expanded greatly during the first half of the 20th century. Dozens of streets in the district were named after European cities or regions. It was deemed sutiable for practical reasons that street names were adapted to Danish spelling rules, resulting in names such as Nyrnborggade and Lyneborggade.

Due to historical reasons, the list also includes the United States Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, as these islands were a Danish colony until 1917.