[tz] Change Request: Europe/Kiev to Europe/Kyiv

[Paul Eggert]

On 8/13/20 10:01 AM, Victor Perov wrote:

> https://github.com/eggert/tz/pull/27

Thanks for bringing that to the mailing list (if I could shut off GitHub pull 
requests I would).

> Popularity is a volatile thing, and can't be used in systems which supposed to
> be consistent.
That's an argument for avoiding change when in doubt, no? People have used 
tzdb's "Kiev" spelling for decades, and it will be a hassle for tzdb to change 
the spelling even if it's wrong. I'm not saying that the spelling should never 
change, merely that tzdb has historically been slow to change spellings and 
there are technical reasons for its inertia.

Many sources are using "Kyiv", as you mentioned; but many are also using "Kiev". 
A Google web search today from Los Angeles reports about 48 million results for 
"Kyiv" and about 108 million for "Kiev", and a Google News search reports about 
4.1 million for "Kyiv" and about 9.4 million for "Kiev". This (admittedly 
quick-and-dirty) sanity check suggests that "Kyiv" is not yet the consensus 
spelling.