Comment by bigstrat2003
8 hours ago
Nobody officially holds that power. Names of geographic places are established by popular usage, not government fiat.
8 hours ago
Nobody officially holds that power. Names of geographic places are established by popular usage, not government fiat.
I’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.