Latin names of cities

Users of Neo-Latin have taken the Latin language to places the Romans never went; hence a need arose to make Latin names of cities that did not exist when Latin was a living language.

The first places that needed Latin names were encountered by Bible translators, who had a need to figure out what to call the many place names in the Bible in Latin. They either reworked the place names into Latin or Greek shapes; in one version, Jerusalem becomes Hierosolyma. Or, they adopted them directly, often treating the new place names as indeclinable nouns; here Jerusalem is brought over as Ierusalem.

Similar strategies are used with United States and North America and other place names that Latin writers needed to give Latin names to. A number of methods are used:

• A classical ending such as -um or -a is added or substituted on the end of the source word. Hence Baltimorum for "Baltimore," Albania for "Albany."
• The words already fit into Latin declensions, as do Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Atlanta.
• Calques are resorted to if the New World name is based on an Old World name; the various Parises in the United States are likely to become Lutetia, and Novum Eboracum or Neo-Eboracum represents New York, because Eboracum is the city of York in England.
• The words are respelled to eliminate non-Latin sounds; hence Washington becomes Vasingtonium.
• The words are adjusted to fit Latin declensions; Kansas appears as either Cansas, Cansatis or Cansa, Cansae; Chicago, Ohio, and Idaho become consonant stems, with genitives Chicagonis, Ohionis, Idahonis, &c.
• The words are re-interpreted to fit Latin declensions; Illinois is treated as a third-declension noun.
• The words are treated as indeclinable, like some Biblical names; Connecticut is sometimes treated this way.

In many cases, there is no consensus as to how to treat any given names, and variants exist. If a university or the see of a bishop is in a town, the odds increase that there is a standard form hallowed by usage. Note that names of cities are usually feminine in gender in Latin, despite ending in -us. This rule is not always strictly observed in the New World

• There are latin forms of Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, and other Oceanian-South Pacific communities as well.
• One example is London, Ontario which can be translateable to Londinium in Latin, while the rest of the other non-Latin languages like Greek and French for other Londons that are not London, England is spelt "London" (from English).

Here are the names that are listed in Latin and its modern meaning on the right for the world, except for Europe, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Kurdistan.

• This list includes Azerbaijan, Kurdistan southeast of Arbil, Abkhazia, Chechnya, Tatarstan, Dagestan, Malta and Pantelleria, and the whole of Kazakhstan, and Russia east of the ural mountains.

Latin Name	English Name, [other name(s)], [older name(s)], [province], [state]
Alexandria (Aegyptus)¹	Alexandria (Al-Iskandriyah), Egypt
Alexandria (Colombia Bretannicum)	Alexandria, British Columbia
Alexandria (Ontario)	Alexandria, Ontario
Alexandria (Virginia)	Alexandria, Virginia
Algeris	Algiers, Algeria
Arbela, Arbila	Erbil, Arbil
Ascalon	Ashkelon, Israel
Atlanta	Atlanta, Georgia
Augusta	Augusta, Maine
Baltimorum, Baltimori	Baltimore, Maryland
Bona Aera	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Cansae, Civitas	Kansas City
Cincinnati	Cincinnati, Ohio
Civitas Alphabeticum	Alphabet City (New York, New York
Civita California	California City, California
Citiva? Florida	Florida City, Florida
Civita Oklahoma	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Citiva Panama	Panama City, Florida
Columbus	Columbus, North Carolina
Corpus Christi	Corpus Christi, Texas
Damascus	Damascus (Dimashq), Syria
Edessa	Sanli Urfa
Flumen Januarii	Rio de Janeiro
Hippo Regius	Bone, Algeria
Hierosolyma²	Jerusalem
Indianapolis (4)	Indianapolis, Indiana
Jericho²	Jericho, West Bank (Palestine)
Leptis Magna, Lepcis Magna	near Tripoli, Libya
Londinium, Africa Australia	London, South Africa
Londinium (Ontario)	London, Ontario
Ludovicopolis	Louisville, Kentucky
Marathon (Ontario)	Marathon, Ontario
Medaba	Mecca (Makkah), Saudi Arabia
Medina, Arabia	Medina, Saudi Arabia
Medina, Nova Eburaca	Medina, New York
Mons Regius	Montreal, Quebec
Minneapolis (4)	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Nova Aurelia, Novum Aurelium	New Orleans, Louisiana
Novum Baltimorum	New Baltimore, Michigan
Novis? Hamburgensis	New Hamburg, Ontario
Novum Eboracum	New York, New York
Novum Londinium*	New London, Connecticut
Olympia (Vasingtonia)	Olympia, Washington
Philadelphia¹ (America)	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia	Amman, Jordan
Phoenix¹, Arizona	Phoenix, Arizona
Praetoria?	Pretoria, South Africa
Providenia?	Provideniya, Russia, west of Alaska
Providentia	Providence, Rhode Island
Sancti Spiriti	Sancti Spiriti, Argentina
Sarnia	Sarnia, Ontario
Tempe (Arizona)	Tempe, Arizona
Tiberias	Tiberias (Teverya), Israel
Tingis	Tangier, Morocco
Tripoli¹	Tripoli, Libya
Tunis	Tunis, Tunisia
Vasingtonium	Washington, DC

• or Novo Londinio

• 1 - Latinized form of the Greek-derived name.
• 2 - Latinized form of a Hebrew derived name
• 3 - Latinized form of an Amerindian languages-derived name.
• 4 - only polis is a Greek derived name.

This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by fixing it.

See also:

• List of Roman place names in Britain
• Latin names of European cities
• Latin names of European rivers
• Latin names of geographical features
• Latin names of islands
• Latin names of lakes
• Latin names of mountains
• Latin names of regions
• Latin names of rivers
• Roman place names

External Links

• http://www.columbia.edu