Endonym and exonym

When I was first learning French at school, I was confused to see that London was known as Londres. It already had a name that people in the UK use. Why did it need another? Then, of course, I gradually realised that I was doing the same with names all over the world.

Germany is called Deutschland by Germans. Spain is called España. Italy, Italia. And on and on. I grew up knowing Holland, only later realising the proper English name is the Netherlands (low countries), but to the Dutch who live there, it’s Nederland.

It was only years later that I learned about endonyms and exonyms.

An endonym is the name locals use for a place.
An exonym is a name used by outsiders for a place.

Sometimes it can lead to genuine confusion. In a piece of family history, while driving through Italy with friends as a young man, I’m told my Dad decided to steer clear of what looked like the “gritty Northern industrial town” of Firenze, not realising they had just driven past Florence, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and the birthplace of the Renaissance.

Etymology of Endonym and Exonym

Onym derives from the Greek word “onoma,” meaning “name.” For example, as we have in anonymous: without a name.

Endonym is made up of end- (within) and -onym (name). So endonyms are literally the name from within—what the natives call it. Endonyms are sometimes called autonyms as a self-name—what I call myself—from auto- (self).

Exonym is made up of ex- (outside) and -onym (name), making it the name from outside.

Reasons for Exonyms

Just as eponyms always have a story, exonyms always have a reason.

As an oversimplification, exonyms may exist from differences in language and letters (some languages lack the sounds of others), ease of pronunciation, literal translation (eg Pays Bas means Low Countries in French, just as the Netherlands does in English), and historical reasons.

Exonyms are frequently political and often contentious. They’re also not just for countries. The British, who mapped and named many things around the world, are responsible for many exonyms, many of which have since been officially changed. To name just a few:

Mt Everest was named after Sir George Everest, who never even saw the mountain. It has both a Nepali endonym (Sagarmāthā) and a Tibetan endonym (Chomolungma).
Mt McKinley was named after William McKinley and has since been returned to the traditional Koyukon Athabaskan name, Denali.
Uluru, the world’s largest monolith, is the native Aboriginal name of Ayers Rock, a name given by a European Surveyor in 1873.

London or Lontoo

Exonyms are language-specific. Back to London, Londres is London in French. But in Finnish it’s Lontoo. Wikipedia’s article on endonyms and exonyms gives a remarkable array of names for London:

Londres in French, Spanish and others
Λονδίνο in Greek
Londen in Dutch
Londra in Italian and others
Londër in Albanian
Londýn in Czech and Slovak)
Londyn in Polish)
Rānana in Māori
Lundúnir in Icelandic
Londain in Irish
Llundain in Welsh
Lontoo in Finnish
Luân Đôn in Vietnamese
لندن (Landan) in Persian, Arabic, Urdu
伦敦 Lúndūn in Mandarin

I had no idea.

World Cup Endonyms and Exonyms

We’re in the middle of the FIFA World Cup 2026, and there are many good examples of endonyms and exonyms. And many more people now know where the Cape Verde Islands are and where the small island of Curaçao is . Here are some of the endonyms and their English exonyms from countries that have been competing.

🇩🇪 Deutschland - Germany
🇲🇦 al-Maghrib / المغرب - Morocco
🇪🇬 Misr / مصر - Egypt
🇯🇵 Nihon / 日本 - Japan
🇰🇷 Hanguk / 한국 - South Korea
🇭🇷 Hrvatska - Croatia
🇬🇷 Elláda / ΕΛΛΑΔΑ - Greece
🇹🇷 Türkiye - Turkey
🇦🇹 Österreich - Austria
🇨🇮 Côte d’Ivoire - Ivory Coast
🇳🇱 Nederland - Netherlands
🇪🇸 España - Spain
🇸🇪 Sverige - Sweden
🇳🇴 Norge - Norway
🇮🇶 al-‘Iraq / العراق - Iraq
🇯🇴 al-Urdunn / الأردن - Jordan
🇩🇿 al-Jaza’ir / الجزائر - Algeria
🇸🇦 as-Su’udiyya / السعودية - Saudi Arabia
🇹🇳 Tūnis / تونس - Tunisia
🇨🇭 Schweiz / Suisse / Svizzera / Svizra - Switzerland
🇧🇪 België / Belgique / Belgien - Belgium
🇨🇩 República Democrática do Congo / République démocratique du Congo - DR Congo
🇧🇦 Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина - Bosnia and Herzegovina
🇨🇿 Česko - Czech Republic / Czechia
🇭🇹 Hayti / Ayiti - Haiti
🇨🇻 Cabo Verde - Cape Verde
🇺🇿 O‘zbekiston - Uzbekistan
🇧🇷 Brasil - Brazil
🇲🇽 México - Mexico

Related Ideas to Endonyms and Exonyms

In case you wanted more name words to talk about:

Eponyms
Capitonyms
Acronyms and Initialisms
Contranym
Heteronyms
Homonyms, homographs, homophones—I had an interesting (for me at least) chat with my niece about these recently after she talked to me about homographs.

While I can be reasonably authoritative on what the British call London, I am not, of course, an authority on what all the endonyms are around the world. Those listed here are to the best of my knowledge. Apologies if I have made any mistakes. If you notice something I should fix/improve, please let me know 🙏