[tz] KyivNotKiev

Paul Eggert eggert at cs.ucla.edu
Sat Nov 28 19:19:15 UTC 2020


On 11/28/20 10:37 AM, Paul Eggert wrote:
> If a similar schedule applied this time around, we'd rename Asia/Kiev in 2023.

I meant to write "Europe/Kiev" of course.

Our naming problem could be worse. Suppose the the biggest city in Ukraine was 
not Kyiv / Kiev, but was instead Kropyvnytskyi / Inhulsk / Kirovohrad / 
Kirovograd / Kirovo / Zinovievsk / Zinovyevsk / Elysavet / Yelisavetgrad / 
Yelysavethrad / Elisavetgrad / Elizabethgrad / ...? See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kropyvnytskyi#Name_origins

That city's official name changed most recently in 2016, but Google suggests 
"Kirovograd" is still the most common English-language spelling. This means 
English-language spelling is trailing official spelling by two or three official 
name-changes now (the uncertainty depending on which "official" one is referring 
to).

I mention this not because of any imminent effort to create a Zone called 
Europe/Kropyvnytskyi, but because it's an extreme case of city name changes 
that, if it were to become more common in the future, could pose a real 
challenge to how tzdb is maintained.



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