Over the decades, several Indian states and cities have updated their official names to better reflect native pronunciation and linguistic roots, moving away from colonial-era spellings. Here’s a closer look — starting with Keralam.
“Keralam” is believed to derive from kera (coconut tree) and alam (land), often interpreted as “land of coconuts.” Over time, British records standardised the shorter “Kerala,” dropping the terminal vowel sound common in Dravidian languages.
In 2011, Orissa officially became Odisha to align the English spelling with the Odia pronunciation.
“Orissa” was a colonial-era rendering. The revised spelling reflects the softer “dh” sound in Odia and corrected the name of the language from “Oriya” to “Odia.”
In 1969, Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu, meaning “Land of the Tamils.” Madras originated from colonial usage, derived from Madraspatnam. The new name aligned the state’s identity with its linguistic heritage.
Formed in 2000 as Uttaranchal, the state was renamed Uttarakhand in 2007. ‘Uttarakhand,’ meaning ‘northern region’, appears in ancient texts and local usage long before statehood.
In 1996, Madras was renamed Chennai. ‘Chennai’ is believed to derive from ‘Chennapatnam’, a 17th-century settlement. ‘Madras’ was the name adopted in British records and used internationally for centuries.
In 1995, Bombay officially became Mumbai. ‘Bombay’ evolved from the Portuguese ‘Bom Bahia’ (Good Bay). ‘Mumbai’ comes from the local deity Mumbadevi and reflects Marathi pronunciation.
In 2001, Calcutta was renamed Kolkata. ‘Kolkata’ is derived from ‘Kalikata’, one of the three villages that formed the city. The earlier spelling reflected British phonetics rather than Bengali pronunciation.
In 2014, Bangalore officially became Bengaluru. ‘Bengaluru’ is believed to come from ‘Benda Kaalu Ooru,’ loosely translated as ‘town of boiled beans,’ a name tied to local legend and Kannada usage.
In 2006, Pondicherry was renamed Puducherry, meaning “New Town” in Tamil. ‘Pondicherry’ was a French adaptation of the Tamil name ‘Puducheri.’ The revised spelling restored its original linguistic form.