List of politically motivated renamings

An early political cartoon lampooning the name change of hamburger meat during World War I.

Asia

• Iran: During the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in 2006, several Iranian groups advocated changing the name of Danish pastry to "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad".^[1][2]
• Philippines: In September 12, 2012, the Philippine President Benigno Aquino III signed Administrative Order No. 29 renaming parts of the South China Sea, "West Philippine Sea". The renamed portions of the sea are within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines and contains the islands of Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal which is disputed among five other countries.^[3]

Oceania

• Australia: During World War I, jam-filled buns known as Berliners were renamed Kitchener buns, and a sausage product known as "Fritz" was renamed "Devon" (or "luncheon meat").

• New Zealand: In 1998, while the French government was testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific, French loaves were renamed Kiwi loaves in a number of supermarkets and bakeries. This, however, does not appear to have been as extensively reported or publicized as anti-French sentiment in the United States. However, French Fries at a few family restaurants were renamed Kiwi fries, or just "Fries", which was already an established term. New Zealanders, however, generally use the British English word "chips".

Europe

• Cyprus: Greek-Cypriots began to market Turkish Delight as Cyprus Delight after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.^[4]

• France:
  • French Revolution: the Committee of Public Safety went so far as to banish all words associated with royalty. A major example of their work was taking Kings and Queens out of playing cards and replacing them with Committee members. It lasted less than a year. It is commonly believed that this was also the time when Aces earnt their status as being both the highest card and the lowest card.^[5]
  • World War I: coffee with whipped cream, previously known as Café Viennois (Vienna coffee), was renamed Café Liégeois (Coffee from Liège) due to the state of war with Austria-Hungary. This appellation is still in use today, mainly for ice-creams (chocolat liégeois and café liegeois).

• Germany: In 1915, after Italy entered World War I, restaurants in Berlin stopped serving Italian salad.

• Greece: Ellinikos kafes 'Greek coffee' replaced Turkikos kafes 'Turkish coffee' on Greek menus in the 1960s^[6] and especially after the 1974 Cyprus crisis.^[7]

• Russia: During World War I, Saint Petersburg was renamed 'Petrograd', amounting effectively to a translation of the name from German to Russian.

• Spain: After the triumph of Francisco Franco, filete imperial ("imperial beef") became a euphemism for filete ruso ("Russian beef"), "ensaladilla nacional" ("national salad") for "ensaladilla rusa" (Russian salad) and Caperucita Encarnada ("Little Red Riding Hood") for Caperucita Roja (which has the same meaning but loses its hypothetical connotations).

• United Kingdom:
  • World War I:
    • The German Shepherd was renamed the "Alsatian," and German biscuits were renamed Empire biscuits due to strong anti-German sentiment.
    • The members of the British royal house, a branch of the German House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, severed ties with their German cousins following several bombing raids on England by the first long-range bomber, the Gotha G.IV starting in March, 1917. On July 17, 1917, King George V changed the family's name to the House of Windsor.

North America

• Canada:
  • World War I: the Ontario city of Berlin was renamed Kitchener.^[8]
  • World War II, the Government of Ontario unsuccessfully attempted to change the name of Swastika, Ontario, to Winston, Ontario, to disassociate the relation with Nazism. Locals named their community before the Nazis adopted the Swastika symbol.

• United States:
  • World War I: The German Spitz was renamed the American Eskimo Dog
  • Great Depression: In 1928, during the last months of the Calvin Coolidge administration, Congress approved the construction of a dam on the Colorado River southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. The press referred to it as "Boulder Dam" as a reference to the construction site, Boulder Canyon. While in Nevada in 1930, Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur referred to the project as "Hoover Dam", a reference to Republican President Herbert Hoover. Following Hoover's defeat by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, Wilbur's successor, Harold L. Ickes, declared in 1933 that the dam should be called "Boulder Dam". In 1947, the Republican-controlled Congress changed the name back to "Hoover Dam".
  • War on Terror: During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, freedom fries was a short-lived political euphemism for French fries, used by some to express their disapproval of the French opposition to the invasion.^[9] In response to the French government's opposition to the prospective invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Republican Chairman on the Committee of House Administration renamed French fries "Freedom Fries," and the change was originally supported and followed by some restaurants. The term has since reverted to the original.

Notes

1. "Iranians rename Danish pastries". BBC. 2006-02-17. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
2. "Iran targets Danish pastries". Associated Press. Al Jazeera. 2006-03-02. Archived from the original on 2006-12-08. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
3. Ubac, Michael Lim (13 September 2012). "It’s official: Aquino signs order on West Philippine Sea". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
4. "Cyprus villagers make giant sweet". BBC News. 2004-10-18.
5. Hérault, Irish (2010-01-31). "French playing cards and card stuff". irishherault.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2010-11-22.
6. Turkish coffee#Greece
7. Robert Browning, Medieval and Modern Greek, 1983. ISBN 0-521-29978-0. p. 16
8. "Name - If some things never change, when did they begin?". Library and Archives Canada. 2004-02-04. Archived from the original on 2008-05-17. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
9. "Over Here: World War I on the Home Front". Digital History. Retrieved 2006-07-12.