 the process, and the name has undergone several iterations since. Perhaps because there have been so many iterations, the rest of the world has just ignored it all and stuck with the original name from when the city was on the west bank.
Prague, Czech Republic. Photo: Alamy
The Czechs call their own capital Praha, which roughly means "threshold" in the Czech language. But Prague hasn't been under Czech control for much of its history. It was part of the Habsburg Empire for a long time, and German was the language of the court. German-speakers are just as bad as English-speakers for renaming places to make them easier to say, and the Habsburgs preferred Prag to Praha. The English version comes from the French interpretation of the German version.
Casablanca, Morocco. Photo: Alamy
Casablanca was built on the ruins of a place called Anfa, but the Portuguese and later Spanish had a big hand in its creation and rule. Casablanca is a Spanish name, meaning "white house". After an 18th century earthquake flattened the city, however, the local sultan rebuilt it and called it Al-Dār al-Bayḍā. This also means "white house", but in Arabic. It's the official name of the city today, although many locals call it Casa, and the rest of the world has stuck to Casablanca.
Florence, Italy Photo: Alamy
When Florence was founded in 59BC, it was called Florentia. And this Latin, original name is the basis for what the city is called in other languages. In German, it's Florenz. In Spanish, it's Florencia, and so on.
But the locals call the city Firenze, and that's because the Italian language – particularly the Florentine vernacular – took over from Latin. It went through stages of being called Fiorentia and Fiorenze. The English version, therefore, is closer to the original.
Mexico City, Mexico
Mexico City Photo: Alamy
Mexico City is older than the country of Mexico, and is surrounded by the state of Mexico. Yet, up until 2016, it was officially known as Distrito Federal. This is similar to the District of Columbia in the US – the area that's the seat of government, but isn't part of any state. The drive for Distrito Federal to become a state led to the name change, and the name chosen was the one the rest of the world uses. Mexicans still call it Distrito Federal or DF, however.
Cairo, Egypt Photo: Alamy
In Arabic, Al Najm Al Qahir is the conquering or vanquishing star – aka, Mars. Mars was allegedly rising when the current Egyptian capital was founded, hence the official name of Cairo is Al-Qāhirah. Approximately, this means the vanquishing city or place of Mars. As with many names of Arabic origin, the Europeans mangled this until it came out as Caire in French, Kairo in German and Cairo in English.
Doha, Qatar Photo: Alamy
Another excellent example of mangled Anglicisation of Arabic places is Doha, the capital of Qatar. In Arabic, it's Ad-Dawḥah. But Arabic script doesn't transcribe perfectly to Latin script, so you can end up with several different spellings of the original. Sometimes the translated names drop the Al or Ad in front of place name, other times they incorporate it, as with Algiers – locally known as Al-Jazā'ir.
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