European cities still known by exonyms in English

Aofen:

Cities still known by exonyms in English tend to fall into a few categories:

Many cities in the Low Countries have traditional English exonyms. Many of these, such as Flushing for Vlissingen or Harlem for Haarlem have fallen out of use, but larger cities still tend to be known by their exonym. Most towns and cities in North Belgium were historically known by French exonyms, but are now currently known by their native Flemish names. The exceptions to this are Bruges, which is fairly large, and Ypres, which is widely known for its significance in WWI

Many major cities across Europe are known in English by their French names (i.e. Cologne, Belgrade, etc.) and a smaller number of cities are known by Italian influenced names (i.e. Vienna, Corfu, or Aleppo).

Some cities in Germany that were historically connected to the UK have English exonyms. The British King was also the monarch of Hanover and Brunswick during the rule of the House of Hanover, and Heligoland was a British colony from 1807 to 1890.

Towns in Greece and the Levant are often known by historical versions of their names, with exonyms sticking around because of the cultural importance of Ancient Greece and the Holy Land in the Anglophone world.

It becomes harder to distinguish between endonyms and exonyms in countries that do not use the Latin Alphabet, but the use of exonyms for cities generally fades as you move away from Europe and the Middle east.

Some prominent cities outside of this map known by exonyms in English include Bangkok for Krung Thep, Havana for La Habana, Batticaloa for Maṭṭakkaḷappu, and Vientiane for Viangchan

Collection: cities - Tags: exonyms, europe - Source: reddit.com