Capital Names

From the BBC:

"Nursultan: Kazakhstan renames capital Astana after ex-president"

Kazakhstan has renamed its capital Astana to Nursultan to honour outgoing leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who unexpectedly resigned on Tuesday. The change was announced after Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was sworn in as president, promising to seek his predecessor's opinion on key decisions.  Mr Nazarbayev, 78, served nearly 30 years as leader of the oil-rich nation. Meanwhile, his eldest daughter has been elected speaker of the upper house of parliament. Dariga Nazarbayeva's promotion to the second most powerful position in the country raises her profile as a potential successor. Her father, who is head of the governing party, will remain at the helm of the influential security council and will hold the formal title Leader of the Nation. Analysts say it is too early to say who is going to run or to declare potential favourites in next year's election. Mr Tokayev and current Prime Minister Askar Mamin are also seen as possible contenders. Mr Tokayev was sworn in as president some 24 hours after Mr Nazarbayev's surprise resignation. He will serve for the remainder of the presidential term which expires in April 2020. "[Nazarbayev's] opinion will have special, one might say priority, importance in developing and making strategic decisions," said Mr Tokayev, who had served as speaker of the upper house of parliament. He said the world had witnessed a "historic event" with the resignation of Mr Nazarbayev, the only man to lead Kazakhstan since it emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Mr Tokayev then proposed changing Astana's name "in honour of the first president" and, shortly afterwards, parliament adopted a law making the renaming official. Astana, which means "capital" in Kazakh, became the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997, taking over from Almaty, still the country's commercial hub and largest population centre. Mr Nazarbayev's 55-year-old daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva, a former deputy prime minister, has long been considered as a potential successor.  She once led the country's main television station and founded her own party in the 2000s, before it merged with her father's party.

Renaming cities

- In the former Soviet Union, now Russia, authorities renamed Königsberg to Kaliningrad, after Mikhail Kalinin, one of the leaders of the Bolshevik revolution. Also, Stalingrad became Volgograd after Stalin's death in 1953

- In Germany, Karl Marx Stadt became Chemnitz in 1990 after the country's reunification

- More than 100 cities in India have changed their names since the end of British rule, including Madras to Chennai. Most recently, Allahabad was renamed Prayagraj, apparently to restore its ancient identity as a major Hindu pilgrimage centre

- The capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo was renamed in the 1960s from Léopoldville, named after a Belgian king, to Kinshasa, the name of a village that existed in the same area

- In Mozambique, the capital was named Maputo following the country's independence in 1975. Until then, it was known as Lourenço Marques after the Portuguese navigator

Ms Nazarbayeva made no mention of the forthcoming elections in her brief acceptance speech on Wednesday, Reuters news agency reports.

^ This is another means of making things more Kazakh (and possibly having Putin become mad enough to invade, occupy and annex Kazakhstan to "protect the ethnic Russians living there" the way he did in Crimea.) 20% of Kazakhstan's population are ethnic Russians. The Russian language is used more in Kazakhstan than Kazakh is - even at the official level.  Kazakhstan moved it's capital from Almaty in the south (on the border with Kyrgyzstan) to Astana in the north (on the border with Russia) to counter Russia's influence in the country. A

stana was chosen as the name of the planned-city because it means "capital city" in Kazakh but it is also spelt the same in both Russian and Kazakh (Астана.) It was supposed to be a "unifying" bridge between the ethnic Russians and the ethnic Kazakhs. The new name, Nursultan, changes that dynamic. Nursultan in Kazakh is "Нұрсұлтан" and in Russian is "Нурсултан" (the Kazakh spelling uses a letter that Russian doesn't even have.)  

While Nazarbayev may no longer be President he is still calling the shots from behind the scenes. I hophe knows what he is doing.I also hope this doesn't start a cult of personality like has happened in different former Soviet Republics (like in Turkmenistan.)   

The former President of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, known as "President for Life" even changed the names of the months. January was changed to honor Niyazov himself and April was changed to honor his mother (who died in the 1948 earthquake.) September was named to honor the book Niyazov wrote ("The Book of the Turkmen Soul.") Things were changed back to traditional Turkmen words after Niyazov died. In short, I think naming building, airports, streets, squares, etc. after people is great, but naming months, cities, etc. after people should not be done lightly. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47638619