h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's interesting - the importance of a name to the identity of a place - or a person.

So the Northern Ireland town of (London)derry is Londonderry if you're Protestant or Derry if you're Catholic. And lots of places - like Zimbabwe - changed their names as soon as possible. So are they different places? Well yes, because their culture changes too.

It's true that Cluj isn't part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire any more. But one reason for all of the more recent names was the ethnic makeup of the place.

There were actually Romanian, Hungarian, German, and Yiddish speakers. Also Romany speakers in the neighbourhood. So it makes sense to have all those names. Most of the old cities in that region do. I always thought it was fun, coming from the boring old US, where we were lucky if somebody didn't name the post office something thrilling, like 'Mule Shoe'. (That's a town in Texas.)

It was Derry first, then had the name Londonderry forced on the majority Catholic population as a form of control, to try and quell ideas of rebellion. Although Protestants say it was changed to show allegiance.

My mother's from Derry, The Bogside in fact, one of the roughest places and has been caught up in tear gas attacks. My dad's an English protestant who served in the navy and was stationed over there.
Both refer to it as Derry, because in general people do regardless of religion. It's only idiot troublemakers or journalists that push it one way or the other.

Thanks for the note on that, Pastey. The only reason a lot of US people think the place is called Londonderry is the song title, 'Londonderry Air'. But we're notorious for our bad geography. Actually, when I was kid, I thought it was two different towns.

I think the song was originally called Derry Air too, it's how I know it.