When we talk about Paris, everyone thinks of the city of the Eiffel Tower, the Moulin Rouge, Édith Piaf and a man with a beret and a baguette under his arm. Hardly anyone would think of an arid desert in Texas, USA, where precisely also there is a city called paris, 8,000 kilometers from his sister. The same would happen if we mention Memphis. Everyone will think of the Tennessee music town that appears in hundreds of movies. But few will think of an egyptian city founded in 3200 a. c.
It will also surprise more than one to know that there are 29 places named london in the world, including one in the Central Pacific. Or that there are 100 places called Newcastle and equivalents in foreign languages. We have the Swiss Newcastle in Neuchâtel, the Slovak in Nové Zámky and the Danish in Nyborg, to name a few. there is even a newcastles summit of the world in Japan. But if there is a name that takes the cake, this is without a doubt San José, which is the most common of all, with 1,716 locations named like that in the world.
Stranger still is that this phenomenon happens in a specific country. That is, that a certain nation houses cities with the same name within its borders. Some days ago, this tweet of a map of Ukraine it made us raise our eyebrows at the number of Mykhailivkas in the territory. The polish case is more surprising: in the country there are 588 towns called Stara Wies, 434 called Podlesie and 373 Piaskis. Is curious web page allows you to find homonymous cities with its search engine.
you’re killing me, ukraine pic.twitter.com/2OVYL2PXt0
— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) June 2, 2022
And in Spain? We don’t have that problem here, fortunately.
The reason why Spain has very few towns with repeated names (unlike other countries) is that the Royal Geographical Society proposed a reform of the nomenclature of municipalities which was approved by Royal Decree in 1916. Objective? Change the name of more than 1,020 municipalities that had the same name among the 9,266 that the country has. The reason was none other than to avoid confusion and facilitate bureaucracy when both places appeared in official documents.
Changing the name of our towns
As soon as the rule was put into effect, the name change of 573 Spanish municipalities was ordered. Let’s see some examples: Villanueva del Conde was renamed Villanueva de Teba adding the name of the Count of Teba. Another curious case was that of Salinas de Leniz, which is now called Leintz-Gatzaga in Guipúzcoa.
But a problem arose that gave rise to several conflicts: How was it decided which of the two homonymous cities had to change its name? According to the reform, it was necessary to leave the name of the towns that had a higher administrative category, such as provincial capitals or larger cities. And to the counterpart, the municipality with the least population was renamed. Of course, always trying not to be a whim of anyone. That is, taking into account “the tradition, the use or the affections of each locality and the historical background”.
That was fixed many times adding names of rivers, mountains or adjoining areas, as well as the surname if it was a proper name, as told in this ABC report. For example. Roquetas became “Roquetas del Mar”. Buitrago added his last name “del Lozoya” and San Fernando included “de Henares”.
Buitrago del Lozoya.
Despite the reform, in Spain there are still some repeated municipalities. Up to 34 have been counted today. In Aragon, for example, the same denomination continues to produce surprising confusion. The mayor of Alberite, Alberto Lete, told about it in this Heraldo article. “In the mail, before it was very common. We have received letters to the City Council that we have had to return,” Lete explained, referring to the Alberite de La Rioja.
Zaragoza continues to have many cases of homonymy: Alagón, Alcalá, Alhama, La Almunia or Aranda, to give a few examples. And of course, according to a study by the Polytechnic University of Madrid conducted by experts such as Antonio Vázquez Hoehne and Ayar Rodríguez de Castro, a new reform of geographical names is necessary. And even more so when there are towns that are repeated even three times in Spanish territory. Arrieta, Fresnedo, Riaño or Villaverde, we’re sorry, but there can only be one left.
