Until now the name of the Ukrainian capital was known internationally as
"Kiev"
.
But since the beginning of the Russian invasion in the country, many citizens have been demanding the abandonment of this name of Slavic origin, in favor of the Ukrainian term
“Kyiv”
, to be pronounced “Kiiv”.
A desire to change toponym which is not new.
Already in 1995, the local toponym had been adopted in Ukraine as part of a law and registered in 2012 by the United Nations, according to the French-speaking Belgian news site RTBF.
This change of name came into effect as part of the country's independence, obtained in 1991. But where does the name "Kiev" come from?
According to Larousse, the city was nicknamed the "mother of Russian cities", because the capital of the first state of the Eastern Slavs.
It owes its name to Ki,
“one of the Polian princes who, according to the chronicles, would have founded it”
.
A political bias
To encourage the international community to adopt the Ukrainian spelling, an online campaign #KyivNotKiev was launched in 2018. The initiative, proposed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aimed to convince the media to use it, while reaffirming the identity of the country.
Since the start of the war, this initiative has gained momentum again, especially on Twitter.
More and more Internet users are calling for the Russian name to be banned.
This, in order to show their support for Ukraine.
Foreign media have already shown their political support for Ukraine by adopting this topography, like Reuters, CNN, BBC News, Al Jazeera, Daily Mail, The Washington Post or The Independent.
The Ukrainian government also encourages the use of its language to designate cities,
“notably Kharkov, which should be Kharkiv, while Odessa should be Odesa and Lvov should be changed to Lviv”
, underlines La Libre.
The case of Belarus
The choice of toponym often reflects a political choice.
This is the case with Belarus, a border country between Russia and Ukraine.
The French name
"Belarus"
, which means
"White Russia"
in Russian, became the official name of the country after the Second World War, when the country was recovered by the USSR.
It was not until 1991, upon its independence, that the country chose the Belarusian name
“Belarus”
, with the same meaning.
Like Ukraine, it has been recognized by international bodies and included in official texts.
In France, however, we continue to speak of
"Belarus"
, because this name seems more Frenchified than
"Belarus"
, we read on the site
"Linguistic Planning in the World"
.
The war or the independence of a country are not the only causes of change of toponyms.
Last January, Turkey decided to change the English translation of its name,
“Turkey”
, tired of being confused with the word
“turkey” (turkey in English)
.
The country now wishes to be called:
“Türkiye”
.
