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Nobody officially holds that power. Names of geographic places are established by popular usage, not government fiat.
by bigstrat2003 1mo ago
Nobody officially holds that power. Names of geographic places are established by popular usage, not government fiat.
- zbentley 1mo agoI’m not sure either is “how names are established”. This is a pretty mushy area, philosophically. Is a name what you think something is called (I think our planet is called “Bloop”, but nobody cares) what a lot of people think something is called (“Indian” in reference to indigenous Americans is a famous example of that going poorly, as are many racist epithets), or what an official body says it should be called (“Palestine”, “New Zealand”, and “Taiwan” have entered the chat)? I don’t think popular usage is any more “truly authoritative” for a name than other sources.