Albania Algeria Name of the country and its capital city in Arabic, ''Al-Jazā'ir'' (الجزائر), is Arabic for "the islands".
Armenia Australia Most places in Australia have additional names in various
indigenous Australian languages.
Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Historically, English borrowed French names for many places in Dutch-speaking areas of Belgium. With a few exceptions this practice is no longer followed by most sources.
Bosnia & Herzegovina Bulgaria Canada Numerous places in the predominantly French speaking province of
Quebec have historically had English exonyms; in most cases, the exonym was a straight translation of the place's French name, with only one major city which ever had an English exonym that was entirely different from its original French name. With a few exceptions, such as
Quebec City, these are no longer widely used. Exonyms are also commonly seen with regard to
First Nations and
Inuit peoples and communities; although government and media sources have evolved in recent years toward using these places' native endonyms, common usage may still favour the older exonyms.
Cambodia During the
Khmer Rouge period (1975–1979), the country was known in English as
Democratic Kampuchea, closer to the endonym than its modern English exonym. The English exonym of Cambodia is based on the French exonym,
Cambodge. The endonym is sometimes used in English, but the exonym is far more common.
Central African Republic Chile China Some of the apparent "exonyms" for China are the result of change in
romanization of Chinese to modern
pinyin, for example "Tientsin" to "Tianjin". Other apparent exonyms are the result of the English name being based on one of the other
varieties of Chinese besides Mandarin. Additionally, certain names which may now be considered exonyms actually preserve older Mandarin pronunciations which have changed in the intervening centuries. For all areas in
mainland China, names written in Chinese are written in
simplified characters. For all areas in the
special administrative regions (SARs), the names will be written in
traditional characters.
Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Historically, English-language sources used German names for many places in what is now the Czech Republic. With some exceptions (such as the Elbe and Oder rivers, both of which flow into Germany) this is no longer done by most sources.
Denmark Faroe Islands Greenland Several places were known under Danish names, or a variant of them. Now only the local
Greenlandic is used.
Egypt The English name of Egypt derives from the French name,
Egypte, which is derived from the Greek name,
Aigyptos (Αίγυπτος).
Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany This list does not include German place names with
ß written with "ss" or
umlauts being removed in some writing.
Greece The exonym for Greece in English comes from
Magna Graecia, which was a historical region in Italy colonized by the Greeks. The endonym
Ellás comes from
Hellen, the mythological ancestor of the Greeks.
Haiti Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland The vast majority of placenames in Ireland are
anglicisations, or
phonetic renderings, of
Irish language names. The exceptions to this are listed here:
Israel The below listing is only a summary. Modern Israeli transcription systems (
romanization of Hebrew) vary from the spellings of many hundreds of place names of Ancient Israel adopted by Bible translations - both Christian, such as the King James Version (1611) and also Jewish versions such as the
JPS (1917).
Italy Many English exonyms were derived from the French variations, such as Rome and Venice.
Japan The English name for Japan derives from the Portuguese name for the country, Japão, which was based on a Chinese transcription of Japan's endonym,
Nippon or
Nihon (日本).
Laos An older variant of the country's name in English uses the definite article, the Laos, which is now obsolete.
Latvia Lebanon Libya Lithuania Malaysia Mexico Moldova Mongolia Morocco The English name for the country derives from the city name
Marrakesh. The Arabic name for the country, al-Magrib (المغرب), is Arabic for "the west".
Myanmar Nepal Netherlands Norway North Korea The inhabitants of North Korea prefer the official name of the country, the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Chosŏn, or simply Korea.
Palestine Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Somalia South Africa Many South African towns have multiple names due to the number of languages. Additionally, some places have been renamed from English and Afrikaans.
South Korea Spain English uses Spanish-language exonyms for some places in non-Spanish speaking regions of Spain.
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka was known as
Ceylon in English until 1972.
Sudan Sweden Switzerland Historically, English-language sources borrowed French-language names for some places in German-speaking Switzerland. This is no longer done, and many sources now use German names for most Swiss German-speaking places.
Syria Thailand Thailand was known as
Siam in English until the
Siamese revolution of 1932.
Taiwan The main island of Taiwan is also known in English as
Formosa. All Chinese names below are written in
traditional characters. As mentioned above in the
China section, many place names in Taiwan use either
pinyin or
Wade-Giles.
Tunisia Turkey In June 2022, the United Nations agreed to change the country's official name in English as Türkiye at the request of the Turkish government. However, the majority of English speakers still refer to the country as Turkey in daily use.
Ukraine United Kingdom The places listed are where non-English local languages are mainly used or where the non-English names do not regularly correspond to the English one.
United States Several places in the United States have additional names in various Native languages.
Vietnam All cities and towns are often spelled without
diacritics and/or as a single word without spaces. Such names are not listed here.
Yemen ==See also==