English Exonyms

English Exonyms

An English exonym is a name in the English-language for a place (a toponym), or occasionally other terms, which does not follow the local usage (the endonym). Exonyms and endonyms are features of all languages and other languages may have their own exonym for the English endonym, such as "Llundain" is the Welsh exonym for the English endonym "London."

An English exonym is typically a place name given by an English-speaking linguistic community to a topographic feature situated in a territory where English has no official status. British English traditionally uses the term "conventional name", but the more internationally accepted term is “exonym”.

"For a toponym to be defined as an exonym, there must exist a minimum degree of difference between it and the corresponding endonym. ... Ĉkalovsk is not an exonym of the Russian city Чкаловск but simply the endonym written in a different script. The omission of diacritical marks usually does not turn an endonym into an exonym: Sao Paulo (for São Paulo); Malaga (for Málaga) or Amman (for 'Ammān) are not considered exonyms. However, in certain languages, diacritics enable names that are otherwise identical to be distinguished; in such cases, the omission of these diacritics could be regarded as generating exonyms. Thus, in Slovakia, Rovné and Rovne are different places, as are Brezany and Brežany. This is the reason for the broad definition of the term "exonym" in the Glossary." - United Nations Manual for the National Standardization of Geographical Names 2006

A less common form of exonym is usage for names and titles. Typically personal exonyms, are limited to regnal names such as popes (John Paul II), monarchs (Charles V), or less commonly very well known non-modern authors (John Calvin, for French Jean Calvin).