4 ms·

I wonder if this will finally prompt a change in the name on Wikipedia

jillesvangurp 4y ago
Or in the relevant ISO standards. I remember when Eritrea gained its own iso code a few years ago. That required us to upgrade a few things to handle new iso codes showing up in data sets. It takes surprisingly long for this stuff to trickle through to all the relevant systems.
Freak_NL 4y ago
Wikipedia will be the absolute last to change the name due to their policies on names and a cohort of Wikipedians who really hate it when peoples/institutes/nations insist on deciding on their own names. Beijing got through back in 2008 or so (and Mumbai and Kolkata in 2003), because editors were apparently more inclined to be reasonable back then. The smaller the place, the more likely old, nearly unused names persist. Dutch Wikipedia is the last place on the internet where a local village is called by a name no longer used for over thirty years. The article name cannot be changed (any change will be reverted within hours). The village, like most in the bilingual province of Frisia, has a Frisian and a Dutch name, but in the nineties the Dutch one was amended to match the Frisian one by dropping a 'w' at the end. Since then signage and use (Dutch language newspapers and other media, local websites, official use as well as local use) have followed and the name is decidedly, and verifiably, just that one name. But the article name on the Dutch Wikipedia cannot be changed no matter what references you bring (because these get discarded because 'government sources don't count', and 'local use just means they use the Frisian name in Dutch'), and even on the English Wikipedia where at least the article name is correct, the old name is listed as its 'Dutch' name. Wikipedia has policies about names set in stone, and on the Dutch version those policies refer to a list published by an official Dutch language institute. That single reference lists the old name in a table listing Dutch and Frisian names for places, and so Wikipedia refuses to bend (which is convenient if you are a Wikipedian who dislikes our provincial minority language). Wikipedia has, unfortunately, quite a few examples of such cognitive dissonance.

Or in the relevant ISO standards. I remember when Eritrea gained its own iso code a few years ago. That required us to upgrade a few things to handle new iso codes showing up in data sets. It takes surprisingly long for this stuff to trickle through to all the relevant systems.

Freak_NL 4y ago

Wikipedia will be the absolute last to change the name due to their policies on names and a cohort of Wikipedians who really hate it when peoples/institutes/nations insist on deciding on their own names. Beijing got through back in 2008 or so (and Mumbai and Kolkata in 2003), because editors were apparently more inclined to be reasonable back then. The smaller the place, the more likely old, nearly unused names persist. Dutch Wikipedia is the last place on the internet where a local village is called by a name no longer used for over thirty years. The article name cannot be changed (any change will be reverted within hours). The village, like most in the bilingual province of Frisia, has a Frisian and a Dutch name, but in the nineties the Dutch one was amended to match the Frisian one by dropping a 'w' at the end. Since then signage and use (Dutch language newspapers and other media, local websites, official use as well as local use) have followed and the name is decidedly, and verifiably, just that one name. But the article name on the Dutch Wikipedia cannot be changed no matter what references you bring (because these get discarded because 'government sources don't count', and 'local use just means they use the Frisian name in Dutch'), and even on the English Wikipedia where at least the article name is correct, the old name is listed as its 'Dutch' name. Wikipedia has policies about names set in stone, and on the Dutch version those policies refer to a list published by an official Dutch language institute. That single reference lists the old name in a table listing Dutch and Frisian names for places, and so Wikipedia refuses to bend (which is convenient if you are a Wikipedian who dislikes our provincial minority language). Wikipedia has, unfortunately, quite a few examples of such cognitive dissonance.