Geographical name changes in Greece

The Greek state has systematically pursued a policy of Hellenisation following its independence from the Ottoman Empire in the early 1830s.^[1][2] This ideology included replacing all geographical and topographic names with revived names rooted in Classical Greece – that is, any name deemed foreign, divisive against Greek unity, or considered to be "bad Greek" was hidden or assimilated.^[2] The names that were considered foreign were usually of Albanian, Slavic or Turkish origin.^[2] Byzantine Greek was considered bad Greek at the time of the establishment of the state until well after the Balkan Wars; accordingly those places were also renamed.^[3][4]

Map of Greece

The aim of the name changes was to cover the memory of the "dark past": meaning Roman, Frankish, Venetian, and especially Turkish rule. The name changes followed the territorial expanses of Greece and continued into the Greek Republic. They occurred in the Arvanite settlements in central Greece since 1830, in Thessaly since 1881, after the Balkan Wars in Macedonia since 1913, and Western Thrace since 1920. The last name changes occurred in 1998.^[2]

Wherever possible, places were renamed after the learned names in Classical Greece, mainly by consulting Description of Greece by Pausanias.^[2] The process of renaming was undertaken from two directions: "bottom-up" and "top-down". Central and southern Greece followed the "bottom-up" approach with different towns competing for the name of a nearby archaeological site. In this regard, even the Arvanites of Attica demanded that their place names be Hellenised. In contrast, the changes in the north were made "top-down" with a team of historians, folklorists, and archaeologists and archaising names foreign to the inhabitants were introduced. Railway companies also gave their stations ancient names so that European visitors could easily recognise them.^[2]

By covering the "dark past" and recalling classical Greece the new names were selected to align historical consciousness with the national narrative. To this day, the use of the old Albanian, Slavic, or Turkish place names by authorities, organisations, and individuals is penalised under Greek law.^[5][6] The result of these policies was a successful restoration of a distant past through nationalism to show that modern Greece was "really the same country as classical Greece".^[2]

History

The area that is today's Greece was inhabited by various peoples throughout history, and the country's toponyms reflect their diversity of origins.^[2] The hellenisation of toponyms in Greece started soon after Greek independence. Many place names in Greece of non-Greek origin were replaced by ancient names that were supposed to have some connection to the area. For example, the ancient name of Piraeus was revived in the 19th century, after it had been called Drakos in Greek, Porto Leone in Venetian, and Aslan Limanı in Turkish for centuries, after the Piraeus Lion which stood there.^[7]

In 1909, the existence of large numbers of non Greek place names were a nuisance to the government. In 1909 the government-appointed commission on toponyms report that every one village in three in Greece (30% of the total) should have its name changed (of the 5,069 Greek villages, 1,500 were considered as "speaking a barbaric language".^[2]

During the Balkan Wars, Greece doubled its territory and population, but it brought various large non-Greek populations into its border, notably including Slavic-speaking Orthodox, mostly Turkish-speaking Muslims from Macedonia, Muslim Albanians, Orthodox Arvanites and Aromanians in Epirus. After the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria in 1913, the majority of Slavic speaking Christians were transferred to Bulgaria as part of a population exchange agreement (Treaty of Neuilly) between the two countries. Moreover, after the end of Graeco-Turkish War and the subsequent Treaty of Lausanne and population exchange between Greece and Turkey, all Muslims except Western Thrace, were exchanged for all Orthodox in Turkey except for those in Istanbul. The villages of the exchanged populations (Bulgarians and Muslims) in Greece were resettled with Greeks from Asia Minor, and the Balkans (mainly from Bulgaria and Yugoslavia). By 1928, Greece's demography had drastically changed from the position in 1830: the country had turned into a nation-state, non-Greeks and most of the population spoke Greek.^{[citation needed]} The Arvanites and Aromanians today mostly proclaim themselves as Greeks. After World War II the remaining Muslim Albanians were expelled due to collaboration activity and war crimes.

After the departure of Slav and Muslim populations in 1912-1926^[8] the Greek government renamed many places with revived ancient names, local Greek-language names, or translations of the non-Greek names and non-Greek names were officially removed.^[9][10] Although the bulk of the population was Greek^[11][12][13] the renaming was considered a way to establish a collective ethnic consciousness.^[14] Several historical Greek names from Asia Minor were also introduced in the region mainly by the resettled refugees. Many Demotic Greek names were also replaced by a Katharevousa Greek form, usually different only morphologically. This process started in 1926 and continued in the 1960s.^[10]

Name changes by region

The older name forms of the renamed settlements were mainly of Greek, Slavic, Turkish, Aromanian or Albanian origin. Other names that were considered foreign were also of Frankish^[15] and Italian origins.^[16][17][18] According to ongoing research being carried out at the Institute of Neohellenic Research in Athens, between 1913 and 1996, the names of 4,413 settlements were legally changed in Greece. In each case, the renamings were recorded in the official Government Gazette. The regional breakdown in renamings is: Macedonia: 1,805 renamings; Peloponnese: 827 renamings; Central Greece: 519 renamings; Thessaly: 487 renamings; Epirus: 454 renamings; Thrace: 98 renamings; Crete: 97 renamings; Aegean Islands: 79 renamings; Ionian Islands: 47 renamings.^[19]

Central Greece

See also: List of former toponyms in Attica Prefecture

Eastern Central Greece was home to the Arvanites, an Albanian speaking people who migrated to the area in the 14th century. Until the 19th century some parts of Attica and Boeotia were populated by Arvanites, many of the place names were also Arvanite. After the establishment of Greece in 1830, most of the names have been changed, especially to names unused since antiquity, from Classical Greece.

Old name	New name	Notes
Liopesi	Paiania	Old name was Arvanitic. Liopesi: 'Place of cows' or 'of the cow'. From the Albanian word lopë or cow and the suffix ës indicating belonging to a place, object or quantity of something.
Menidi	Acharnes	Old name was Arvanitic
Kriekouki	Erythres	Old name was Arvanitic. Kriekouki: 'Red Head'. From the Albanian word Krye/Krie (in some dialects) meaning 'head' and Kuq or red.
Dervenosalesi	Pyli, Boeotia	Old name was Arvanite. Dervenosalesi: 'The thigh mountain pass'. From the word Derven meaning 'mountain pass' (itself a local borrowing of the Persian word 'Dervend'[20] meaning the same thing) and Shalës or 'thigh', due to the narrowness of the area resembling the length or shape of a thigh.

Epirus

Epirus had a Greek majority population before annexation to Greece (1913),^[21][22] with minorities of Aromanians and Albanians. A part of the Albanian minority, known as Cham Albanians, resided in the coastal area and were expelled from the area after World War II by the EDES resistance group. An unknown number of Aromanians and Orthodox Albanians, in some sources called Arvanites, still live in the area, who today identify mostly as Greek. Particularly in the early 20th-century Albanian place names of Epirus have been systematically changed to Greek, thereby erasing the former Albanian presence in the landscape.^[23]

Old name	New name	Notes
Densko, Denicko	Aetomilitsa	Old name was in Aromanian
Briaza	Distrato	Old name was in Aromanian
Skéferi	Myloi	Old name was in Albanian. Skéferi: 'Saint Stephen'. From the Albanian word for saint shën in its contracted form sh/ë used in the toponym and the Albanian forms Stefani/Shtjefni for the name Stephen which became contracted in the toponym.
Soúvliasi	Agios Vlasios	Old name was in Albanian. Soúvliasi: 'Saint Blaise'. From the Albanian word for saint shën in its contracted form sh/ë used in the toponym and the Albanian form Vlash for the name 'Blaise' which became contracted in the toponym.
Liogáti	Agora	Old name was in Albanian. Liogáti: 'ghost'. From the Albanian word Lugat for 'ghost' or 'ghoul'.
Ríziani	Agios Georgios	Old name was in Albanian. Ríziani: 'at the feet of the side (of the mountain)'. From the Albanian word rrëzë for 'feet' or 'alongside' and the Albanian word anë for 'side' or 'edge', due to the settlement being located close to the edge of a mountain.
Várfani	Parapotamos	Old name was in Albanian. Várfani: 'poor place'. From the Albanian word varfër/vorfën for 'poor'.
Goúrza	Ano Paliokklision	Old name was in Albanian. Goúrza: 'a place where a shallow channel cut in the surface of soil or rocks by running water'. From the Albanian word gurrë for 'source' or 'rill' and the Albanian suffix ëz/za/zë denoting 'smallness'.
Liópsi	Asprokklision	Old name was in Albanian. Liópsi: 'place of cows' or 'of the cow'. From the Albanian word lopë for cow and the suffix ës indicating belonging to a place, object or quantity of something.
Likoúrsi	Mesopotamo	Old name was in Albanian. Likoúrsi: 'place of flaying animal hides or skinners'. From the Albanian word lëkurë for 'skin' and the suffix ës indicating belonging to a place, object or quantity of something.
Rápeza	Anthousa	Old name was in Albanian. Rápeza: 'place of small plane trees'. From the Albanian word rrap for 'plane tree' and the Albanian suffix ëz/za/zë denoting 'smallness'.
Skémbo	Vrachos	Old name was in Albanian. Skémbo: 'place of boulders, a rocky crag or a cliff'. From the Albanian word shkëmb for 'cliff, rock or peak', due to the settlement being located on the coast on hilly terrain.
Riniása	Riza	Old name was in Albanian. Riniása: 'rooted place'. From the Albanian word rrënjë for 'root' and the suffix as/ë indicating belonging to a place, object or quantity of something, due to the settlement being located on the coast on hilly terrain.
Boulmét Zervó	Galata	Old name was in Albanian. Boulmét: 'dairy'. From the Albanian word bulmet for 'dairy'. The name Zervó was attached to the settlement for administrative purposes and is the name of a nearby village.
Dára	Elia	Old name was in Albanian. Dára: 'place resembling a pincer or tong form'. From the Albanian word darë for 'pincer' or 'tongs', due to the settlement being in a valley and mountainous area.
Barkmádhi	Kastritsa	Old name was in Albanian. Barkmádhi: 'place resembling a big stomach'. From the Albanian word bark for 'stomach' and the Albanian word madh for 'big'.
Kourtési	Mesovouni	Old name was in Albanian [citation needed]. Kourtési: 'Kurt's place'. From the Middle Eastern male name Kurd [citation needed] and the suffix ës indicating belonging to a place, object or quantity of something.

Macedonia

Till 1912, the area had a very heterogeneous population consisting of Slavic, Turkish, Greek, Jews and Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians. Most of the geographical names were of non Greek origin, the Greek government planned to change this. Between 1913 and 1928 the Slavic names of hundreds of villages and towns were Hellenised by a Committee for the Changing of Names, which was charged by the Greek government with "the elimination of all the names which pollute and disfigure the beautiful appearance of our fatherland".^[24] Between 1912 (Balkan Wars) and 1928 (after the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey), the non Greek inhabitants were largely gone and instead of them Greek refugees from the Ottoman Empire settled in the area thereby changing its demography. Toponym changes in each modern prefecture are listed in,

• Drama Prefecture
• Florina Prefecture
• Grevena Prefecture
• Imathia Prefecture
• Kavala Prefecture
• Pella Prefecture
• Pieria Prefecture
• Xanthi Prefecture

Western Greece

Old name	New name	Notes
Dragomesti	Astakos	The old name, used from the Middle Ages, was of Slavic origin. The current name derives from that of an ancient town in Acarnania, and means "lobster" in Greek.

Western Thrace

Map of the Name Origins of Western Thracian Settlements.

Since 1977 all Turkish village names of Western Thrace have been changed to Greek names.^[6] Western Thrace is home to a large Turkish minority.

Old name	New name	Notes
Gümülcine	Komotini	Gümülcine was the Turkish name, which was derived from the older original Byzantine name, Koumoutzina.
Dedeağaç	Alexandroupolis	The Turkish name of Dedeağaç remained the official name of the city until 1920, when it was renamed Alexandroupolis in honour of King Alexander of Greece.
Sarışaban	Chrysoupolis	During the Ottoman period, the population was predominantly Turkish. The town was known as Sapaioi between 1913 and 1929, after which it was then given its present name.

Other

• Banitsa → Vevi (1926)
• Boimitsa → Axioupoli (1927)
• Kailar → Ptolemaida (1927)
• Khandak → Candia → Heraklion
• Lamia → Zitouni → Lamia
• Cydonia – Canea – Chania

See also

• Prontuario dei nomi locali dell'Alto Adige, a massive renaming of German toponyms in the Austrian territory annexed by Italy after World War I (today's South Tyrol)
• Commission for the Determination of Place Names, massive renaming of toponyms in the territory annexed by Poland after World War II

References

1. Tsitselikis, Konstantinos (2012). Old and New Islam in Greece: From Historical Minorities to Immigrant Newcomers. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 49. ISBN 9789004221529.
2. Zacharia, Katerina (2012). Hellenisms: culture, identity, and ethnicity from antiquity to modernity. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. pp. 230–233. ISBN 9789004221529.
3. Zacharia, Katerina (2012). Hellenisms: culture, identity, and ethnicity from antiquity to modernity. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 235. ISBN 9789004221529. For example, the renowned Byzantine city-fortress of Monemvasia was temporarily renamed Epidaurus Limira, that is to say it was given an unknown name for which there was no authority. It was unclear whether only names that recalled the foreign conquerors ought to be changed, or if the modification of the name ought to consist of a general restoration of names of the Classical Era. This dilemma was explained by the fact that, at the time of the creation of the Greek state, the only "past" which was thought worthy of commemoration was the Classical Period. Ancient sites and monuments were subjected to the same procedure of erasing the medieval past. The image of the Parthenon we see now was created in the nineteenth century after the elimination from the Acropolis of all the buildings not belonging to the Classical Period of the fifth century BC. It was only after the Balkan wars in 1912-1913 that the Byzantine and medieval periods began to be thought capable of providing references in "space-time" for modern Greek ideology. However, even after the national ideology was enriched in these ways, Classical antiquity never lost its primacy.
4. Tsitselikis, Konstantinos (2012). Old and New Islam in Greece: From Historical Minorities to Immigrant Newcomers. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 50. ISBN 9789004221529. One of the most revealing cases regards the change of the name of Ghioumoultzina/Gümülcine to Komotini: The Ottoman version of the name was very close to the old original Byzantine name Koumoutzina, but the more hellenised Komotini has prevailed. Report by the Committee on the place names in Greece to the Ministry of the Interior, 2.11.1921, AP 417, State General Archives of Athens, Collection Stamoulis, K85.c, 8, doc 085.
5. Tsitselikis, Konstantinos (2012). Old and New Islam in Greece: From Historical Minorities to Immigrant Newcomers. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 50. ISBN 9789004221529.
6. Whitman, Lois (1990). Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Turks of Greece. Human Rights Watch. p. 1. ISBN 9780929692708. Since 1977, all Turkish village names have been changed to Greek names; it is forbidden to use Turkish names for official purposes, on pain of fines or imprisonment. In addition, giving the Turkish name in parentheses following the Greek name is not allowed. The Minority Rights Group, Minorities in the Balkans, op. cit., page 33.
7. Peter Mackridge, Language and National Identity in Greece, 1766-1976, Oxford, 2009, p. 21.
8. Elisabeth Kontogiorgi, Population Exchange in Greek Macedonia: The Forced Settlement of Refugees, Oxford University Press, 2006, "The influx of Greek refugees coupled, with the departure of Muslims and pro-Bulgarian Slav Macedonians, produced a radical ethnological impact: whereas Macedonia was 42 per cent Greek in 1912, it was 89 per cent in 1926."
9. Todor Hristov Simovski, The Inhabited Places of the Aegean Macedonia (Skopje 1998), ISBN 9989-9819-4-9, pp. XXXVIII-XLII.
10. Bintliff, "The Ethnoarchaeology of a 'Passive' Ethnicity", in K.S. Brown and Yannis Hamilakis, The Usable Past: Greek Metahistories, Lexington Books, 2003, p. 138 "This denial of the multiethnic composition of the rural landscape has been helped by state-imposed systematic place-name changes throughout this century, many as late as the 1960s, through which a wonderful scatter of traditional Greek, Slav, Albanian, and sometimes Italian village names has been suppressed—wherever conceivable—in favor of the name of any ancient Greek toponym remotely connected to the neighborhood.
11. Anastasia Karakasidou's paper on "Politicizing Culture: Negating Ethnic Identity in Greek Macedonia", Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 11 (1993), 22-23 notes 2-3. "the bulk of the population in Greek Macedonia is nothing less than Greek"
12. Vlassis Vlasidis - Veniamin Karakostanoglou. "Recycling Propaganda: Remarks on Recent Reports on Greece's "Slav-Macedonian Minority"". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03.
13. Elisabeth Kontogiorgi, Population Exchange in Greek Macedonia: The Forced Settlement of Refugees, Oxford University Press, 2006, "The influx of Greek refugees, coupled with the departure of Muslims and pro-Bulgarian Slavs, produced a radical ethnological impact: whereas Macedonia was 42 per cent Greek in 1912, it was 89 per cent in 1926."
14. Elisabeth Kontogiorgi, Population Exchange in Greek Macedonia: The Forced Settlement of Refugees, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 292-294. "The policy of Hellenizing toponyms was fundamental to the more comprehensive process of establishing a collective ethnic consciousness and a sense of national identity rooted deeply in the profundity of time and history."
15. https://www.protothema.gr/stories/article/1087679/ta-toponumia-tis-elladas-kai-i-proeleusi-tous/ "Frankish toponyms in Greece The Frankish toponyms in Greece are remnants of the Frankish rule (1204-1566), during which Frankish rulers had settled in island or continental parts. Their research, although started satisfactorily at the beginning of the 20th century, by A. Adamantiou, S. Lambros and S. Dragoumis, has not progressed significantly since then. The Franks either completely changed the place names (eg Nafpaktos, it was called Lepanto) or sometimes translated them into their language e.g. Monemvasia was called Malevesie etc."
16. Charalambos Symeonidis, "The Frankish and Venetian influence", in: History of the Greek Language (edited by MZ Kopidakis), published by M.I.ET., Athens, 2010, p. 174.
17. http://pandektis.ekt.gr/dspace/handle/10442/4968/simple-search?query=%CE%A0%CF%84%CF%85%CF%87%CE%AF%CE%B1 https://greece.redblueguide.com/en/the-small-island-vido-in-corfu-do-you-know-it http://pandektis.ekt.gr/dspace/handle/10442/4968/simple-search?query=%CF%80%CF%8C%CF%81%CF%84%CE%BF+%CE%B3%CE%B5%CF%81%CE%BC%CE%B5%CE%BD%CF%8C
18. https://www.protothema.gr/stories/article/1087679/ta-toponumia-tis-elladas-kai-i-proeleusi-tous/ Venetian / "Italian toponyms These are place names that also appeared after 1204 and are due not only to the conquest of Greek territories by the Venetians, but also to the trade-political relations East-West, at this time."
19. "Pandektis: Name Changes of Settlements in Greece". Retrieved 2016-11-30. List compiled by the Institute for Neohellenic Research. Click on [ + ] to reveal general information about the site.
20. "Derbent".
21. Seymour Forster, Edward (1957). A Short History of Modern Greece, 1821-1956. Taylor & Francis. p. 68. Retrieved 28 June 2013. the district has remained predominantly Greek
22. Cohen, Getzel M.; Martha Sharp Joukowsky, eds. (2006). Breaking ground : pioneering women archaeologists (1st pbk. ed.). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 202. ISBN 9780472031740. Macedonia and Epirus on the mainland, and Crete, where the population was predominantly Greek, deeply resented Turkish rule, and the desire for union with Greece was strong.
23. Silverman, Helaine (1990). Contested Cultural Heritage: Religion, Nationalism, Erasure, and Exclusion in a Global World. Springer. p. 114. ISBN 9781441973054.
24. M. Danforth, Loring (1997). The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World. Princeton University Press. p. 69. ISBN 9780691043562.

Further reading

• Kyramargiou, E., Papakondylis, Y., Scalora, F., & Dimitropoulos, D. (2021). Changing the Map in Greece and Italy: Place-name Changes in the Nineteenth Century. The Historical Review/La Revue Historique, 17, 205-250. doi:https://doi.org/10.12681/hr.27072
• Κυραμαργιού, Ελένη (June 2010). "Καινούρια Ονόματα – Καινούριος Χάρτης: Οι Μετονομασίες των Οικισμών της Ελλάδας, 1909–1928 [New Name-places on a New Map: Nationalism and the Change of Toponyms in Greece, 1909–1928]". Τα Ιστορικά (in Greek). 52: 3–26.
• Κυραμαργιού, Ελένη (2007). Καινούργια ονόματα - Καινούργιος χάρτης: ζητήματα μετονομασιών των οικισμών της Ελλάδας, 19ος-20ος αιώνας [Master thesis] (in Greek). Rethymno, Greece: University of Crete, Faculty of Arts, History and Archeolody Department.

External links

• For a comprehensive list and database of place name changes in Greece (by settlement, date and year of change), see Institute for Neo Hellenic Research: Name Changes of Settlements in Greece
• "Pandektis: Name Changes of Settlements in Greece". Retrieved 2016-11-30. List compiled by the Institute for Neohellenic Research