They speak Kannada in Bengalooru

India's Bangalore city renamed Bengalooru - washingtonpost.com

Now for a more traditional geographical topic - the renaming of a city.

Why would India, or any place for that matter, want to change a name of a city, particularly the name of a city of some importance?

They might feel compelled if the city's name was one not of their choosing. Bangalore represents the anglicized name of the actual name of the city, Bengalooru. During the British colonial era, the name was changed from Bengalooru to Bangalore.

In order to protect the local culture from the influx of newcomers - this city is an Indian technopole, home to more than 1,500 computer software and technology support firms - traditional names are replacing the anglicized names.

There are some opposed. Listen to the report on TheWorld. It cost money to change a name. Billboards and signs must be changed. People's business cards must be changed. Promotional materials, letterhead; just changing a name can have far reaching implications. Some suggest that the price is too high; the name was fine and the money could be used for funding social services. Maybe so.

Check out this transcription of the October 19th, 2006 U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing. Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman, gets taken to task not only on the Kiev-Kyiv name change, but also why the United States still calls Myanmar "Burma" and how the U.S. can support both Greece and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) when FYROM really wants to be called Macedonia - only Greece won't let it because Greece already has a state called, "Macedonia," that is right next door to the country that wants to be called "Macedonia."

Whew.