Egopolis

Count the 'staches
"They say Tapioca's a real tyrant... he's cruel and he's vain... In fact he's so vain he changed the name of the capital from Los Dopicos. He called it Tapiocapolis after himself."
—Tintin, Tintin and the Picaros

Many a self-aggrandizing dictator has not been satisfied merely with building entire factories to produce busts and portraits of himself. For these rulers, the ultimate statement of their power has been to name or rename entire towns after themselves. Don't be surprised if there's a big Our Founder statue in the central plaza or entrance. Or both.

There is some Truth in Television to this, such as Stalingrad and Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov.

Is a common trait of a Villain World, and frequently seen as a result of (or part of starting) a Cult of Personality. The renamer is likely to be The Caligula or The Generalissimo. Tends to lead to Please Select New City Name a generation or so later...

Sub-Trope of Meaningful Rename.

Compare Conspicuous Consumption and Airstrip One.

Examples of Egopolis include:

Anime & Manga


Comics -- Books

  • In Tintin, we have General Tapioca, who renamed the capital of his country to Tapiocapolis. Later, he is overthrown by General Alcázar, who renames the city as Alcázarpolis.
  • In the Marvel Universe, Dr. Doom renamed Latveria's capital Doomstadt, also renaming several of the nation's other cities (to Doomburg, Doomwood, Doomton, etc.) Latveria's greatest holiday is Doom's Day, which is celebrated whenever Doom feels like celebrating.
  • This doesn't have to be a dictator in the French adaptation of the Disney comics: Duckburg is called Donaldville for no apparent reason, and Mouseton is called Mickeyville. The English names have the excuse that "Duck" and "Mouse" seem to be common names, but ...
  • Mocked in PS238 when Tyler mentions that he has problems with geography due to all the rogue island nations named after their supervillain rulers.
  • In some fairly old Superman comics, Lex Luthor gets marooned on some far-off planet and the people there somehow elect him ruler. That's because he actually saved them, and they rename the planet to "Lexor" in gratitude. He hangs there quite a bit for a while, mostly because it orbits a red sun. As it turns out, he likes being the good guy (this is the Silver Age mad scientist version), and even gets married. Then it got destroyed in a fight with Superman. He didn't take it well.
  • An old issue of Hsu and Chan has the title brothers create an MMORPG similar to Second Life in which the player lives out lower-middle class life in Tanakapolis. In the game, taxes, the monthly fees to play the game, and other fees are paid by leaving large sacks of money at the foot of two solid gold statues of the brothers and begging that the brothers would not smite you for their own amusement.

Hsu Statue: Louder!

  • Variant in Judge Dredd: out in the Cursed Earth, there's a town named Fargoville after the first Chief Judge, Eustace Fargo, and whose inhabitants worship him as a deity.
  • In Knights of the Dinner Table, Newt names his campaign world "Newtonia".


Comics -- Newspaper


Films -- Animation

  • In Megamind, Hal Stewart (the cameraman wooing for news reporter Roxanne Ritchie) is the "unfortunate" recipient of Metro Man's super powers, and calls himself "Tighten"(a misspelling of "Titan"). However, he decides to become a supervillain instead. He goes over the edge when he finds out Megamind is in love with Roxanne, and causes chaos in the city. One of the things "Tighten" proceeds to do is burn "Tightenville" into the cityscape of Metro City.
  • The Emperors New Groove: In a weird inversion/subtle meta example, Kuzco is named after the historical capital of the Inca Empire, but the city's name is never mentioned in the show (though it would be in character).
  • The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: After enslaving everyone in Bikini Bottom with his mind controlling Chum Bucket helmets, Plankton converts Bikini Bottom into Planktopolis, complete with several giant stone statues of himself.


Films -- Live-Action

  • In the first Superman movie, Lex Luthor has already planned to rename at least a dozen cities with some form of "Lex" or "Luthor" following completion of his plot. Luthorville, Marina del Lex, etc. Humorously, he gets angry when his henchman tries to name a town "Otisburg", so much so he makes him erase it from his makeshift map.
  • In It's a Wonderful Life, Bedford Falls is renamed Pottersville in the Alternate Universe ruled by George Bailey's rival, Mr. Potter.
  • In the Street Fighter movie, M. Bison announces his plan to build "Bisonopolis" once he takes over the world. In a possible sign that the producers realized Raul Julia was the best thing they had, he gets to spend nearly two and a half minutes strolling around the room and ranting about it. They are in the running for the best two and a half minutes of the whole movie. Also, Bison Dollars. They'll be worth five British Pounds to a dollar once Bison kidnaps their Queen. Of course, trying to pass them off as currency before that happens wasn't particularly advisable....
  • Todd Spengo does this to an entire planet in the backstory of Mom and Dad Save The World. Whatever it was is lost to the sands of history, but he is proud to be the Emperor of Planet Spengo.
  • Tron: Legacy has TRON City as the setting of the main action. It's a subversion, though, since it was Kevin Flynn's idea, and Tron never was a dictator, more like a protector of the system.


Game Books

  • Book 1 of The Fabled Lands takes place not long after a civil war in Sokara. The capital, Old Sokar, has been renamed Marlock City after the conquering General Grieve Marlock.


Literature

Dr. Burrows: "The Garden of the Second Sun"... I shall call it "Roger Burrows Land"!

  • In the Warcraft novel The War of the Ancients, the night elf Capital City is renamed Zin-Azshari, or "Glory of Azshara", after their queen Azshara. This was apparently not enough for her, who wanted to rename it "Azshara". Ruins of the city can be found in World of Warcraft in the region of Azshara (hmm...).
  • In Atlas Shrugged, when Cuffy Meigs and his "Friends of the People" take over Project X, they rename its site "Meigsville", the intended capital of their feudal domain. It doesn't last long.
  • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo offers us a variant when he claims an entire continent for himself, acting like a sovereign:

...Well now! In 1868, on this 21st day of March, I myself, Captain Nemo, have reached the South Pole at 90°, and I hereby claim this entire part of the globe, equal to one–sixth of the known continents."
"In the name of which sovereign, Captain?"
"In my own name, sir!"
So saying, Captain Nemo unfurled a black flag bearing a gold "N" on its quartered bunting. Then, turning toward the orb of day, whose last rays were licking at the sea's horizon:
"Farewell, O sun!" he called. "Disappear, O radiant orb! Retire beneath this open sea, and let six months of night spread their shadows over my new domains!"

  • One Alternate History book, derived from notes taken during World War II, suggested that had it been taken and held, St. Petersburg - at that point called Leningrad - and Stalingrad would have been renamed Hitlerhafen, to symbolize the Nazi's ultimate victory over Communism and its two Soviet icons.
  • Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels: Game Over introduces Henry "Hank" Jellicoe, who has a mansion in a location with his name on it. His company Jellicoe Global Securities naturally has his name on it. Cross Roads reveals that he has an airline with his name on it. As it turns out, all this is Foreshadowing to The Reveal that Jellicoe is a Complete Monster.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire, the noble house Arryn rules the Vale of Arryn. It is implied that the first Andal king named the place after himself when he conquered it.
  • In The Books Of Swords, the Silver Queen rules the kingdom of Yambu. Her name is also Yambu. This may be a case, however, of the Real Life trope (see below) of calling a monarch after her kingdom, but even after she is deposed, no other name is ever given for her or her former kingdom. Also, her parents' names are never mentioned, so it is not clear if this was a custom or what have you.


Live-Action TV

  • In The Big Bang Theory episode "The Pants Alternative", Sheldon has an imaginary SimCity, Sheldonopolis, with Sheldon Square, Sheldon Towers, Sheldon Stadium the home of The Fighting Sheldons and Shel-Mart.
  • Las Vegas: Neither of them gets the chance to go through with it, but before her death billionaire Monica Mancuso planned to rename the Montecito Resort and Casino The Monica when she was the property's owner, while Sam Marquez toys with renaming it the "Samecito" when she later inherits the ownership from Casey Manning.


Tabletop Games

  • In the Ravenloft setting, the domain of Markovia is named for its darklord, Frantisek Markov. Strahd von Zarovich came close to this trope, re-naming the highlands he'd reclaimed from invaders "Barovia" after his father, King Barov.


Theater

  • In Peer Gynt, Peer dreams about creating a city called Gyntiana.


Toys

  • In Bionicle, Makuta renames the Matoran universe "The Makutaverse" after he takes over it.


Video Games

  • In several of the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog games, Eggman's stated ambition is to conquer the country/world and rename it "The Eggman Empire" or "Eggmanland." Its capital will be Station Square, which he will rename "Robotnikland".
    • One of the simplest examples comes from the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons and comics: Dr. Robotnik takes over Mobotropolis and renames it Robotropolis.
    • In the Archie comics, his right-hand-man Snively briefly takes over and renames it "Snivopolis".
    • In Sonic Unleashed Eggman actually succeeds in creating Eggmanland, which is effectively a Circus of Fear and an Eternal Engine in one.
    • The Tropico Series of videogames. The Main/Playable Character, El Presidente has the option of building monuments to himself, not only to please his or her own ego, but also to appease the Loyalist Faction In-Game.
    • In the OVA, Robotnik already has his city of Eggmanland (or Robotropolis in the English dub). The lights of the city even form a picture of his face.
  • New Pork City from Mother 3.
  • In Rocket: Robot on Wheels, Jojo the Raccoon, tired of being second banana to Whoopie World, kidnaps the eponymous walrus and rewires the whole park. Towards the end of the game, you discover that Jojo built his own amusement park called JojoWorld. After thwarting Jojo's schemes, Whoopie World is renamed RocketLand after the protagonist.
  • In Final Fantasy VIII, Vinzer Deling, the Galbadian dictator, has the capital of Deling City named after him.
  • A familial example could be found in The Republic of Dave in Fallout 3, a small ranch owned by a guy named Dave, who took it over from his father Tom, back when it was the Kingdom of Tom. Nonetheless it is actually run on a democracy, with an election that can be rigged so that his son or wife can win, which if they do he'll go off to make a new Republic of Dave.

Come visit the scenic Republic of Dave! Formerly the Kingdom of Tom, formerly the New Republic of Stevie-Ray, formerly Billsylvania, formerly the Republic of Stevie-Ray, formerly the Kingdom of Larry...

  • With the old Queen Zeal and the pesky gurus gone, Dalton was quickly to rename the Kingdom of Zeal to the Kingdom of Dalton. He also captured and modified the Epoch to transforms it into the Aero Dalton Imperial, a flying throne fitting for the new King.
  • Rezopolis, from Gex.
  • A prime example is the team the Slaycity Slayers from Mutant League Football, where both team and city got their name changed as part of the contract with star player K.T. Slayer.
  • In Dragon Quest III, this happens to a modest little frontier town that the heroes help get established. Over time, the village's leader starts seriously abusing their power, until, at the height of their reign, they're practically living like a king. The twist? Said egomaniac is the Merchant you convinced to settle down there in the first place and help it grow.
  • You wouldn't know just from playing Final Fantasy II, but the empire's capital of Palamecia is actually the last name of its leader, Mateus Palamecia. Not unrealistic, as lots of ruling houses either lent their name to the land they owned or vice versa. Too bad Everyone Calls Him The Emperor, and you only learn his real name in the (Japan-only) novelization, also that none of them seem to go into detail about which was "Palamecia" first, the country or the imperial line.
  • The King (Mickey Mouse) in Kingdom Hearts. Though he's on your side, you have to wonder about a king who stamps his silhouette on damn near everything in his realm....
  • Depending on how you play, you can name your alliance in Star Control 2 after yourself.
  • One of the worlds that your journey brings you to in LittleBigPlanet 2 is Avalonia, an Eternal Engine city created by Avalon Centrifuge. A rare example of a good guy doing this.
  • Rune Factory: Frontier has a side character named Roland (which was changed to Nolan in the localization), the former king of the Kingdom of Roland. It's unspecified whether this is in effect or inverted (i.e. he was named Roland because he was to be the King of Roland).
  • The Warcraft universe has the city of Thaurissan, named by (and after) Sorcerer-thane Thaurissan when he declared himself emperor of the Dark Iron dwarves. Destroyed when Emperor Thaurissan summoned Ragnaros the Firelord, its ruins are in what became the Burning Steppes.
  • In The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, when Groose accidentally falls down to the surface, he realizes how nice of a place it looks. Grand music starts building up, and then he decides to christen it...Grooseland. The music promptly dies in hilarious fashion. Naturally, the name doesn't stick.
  • As the name would suggest, Neo Bowser City in Mario Kart 7 is one.


Web Animation

  • Homestar Runner
    • Strong Bad has his own country in a vacant lot behind Bubs' Concession Stand, Strong Badia (Population: Tire).
    • In the second episode of Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People, almost all the other characters get in on it. Not all of them fit the model:
      • A tiny part of Strong Badia is claimed by the Cheat and the Tire as "The Cheat and Tireia." (Yes, it rhymes with "diarrhea." And yes, Strong Bad noticed.)
      • Homestar and Marzipan found Marzistar (or is it Homezipan?) at Marzy's house.
      • Bubs' Concession Stand becomes Concessionstan-tinople.
      • Strong Sad takes over the House of Strong and renames it Bleak House.
      • Pom Pom lays claim to Club Technochocolate as the capital of his country, Pompomerania.
      • Homsar can be found in the Homsar Reservation.
      • Strong Mad takes over the area around the stone bridge. Being rather dim, he names it "COUNTRY".
      • Coach Z's country (not shown, but can be assumed to be the athletic field/locker room) is called Coachnya.
      • The Poopsmith's country (mercifully not shown), is called Poopslovakia. It's probably best not to speculate on what it consists of.
      • The inanimate objects in the Field get them as well: the Cool Car is divided into Frontzeatserland and Hatchbackistan, the photo booth becomes Snapshakland, the stick becomes Stickstenstein, the brick wall becomes the Union of Soviet Socialist Repubricks, the fence is divided into the People's Republic of Front-au-Fence and the Backfence Revolutionaries, and the Blubbo's Whale becomes "50% Off Apple Pie Charts".


Web Comics

  • The infamous Sonichu comics are set in "Cwcville", after Christian Weston Chandler. (It's apparently pronounced "Quick-ville" judging by the audiobooks and the bad puns.) The currency is named after him (C-Quarters, W-Quarters, and confusingly C-QUARTERS), the only known radio station is KCWC, the drink of choice is CWC Cola [3]), and the mayor's birthday is celebrated as a holiday, under the name of Christian Love Day. Hell, the entire city cold be considered nothing more of an extension of his egotism. Strangely, the city was founded by his father Bob. One can only assume he's removed all evidence of the man.
  • The terrible country of Tyrinaria in Order of the Stick, home to Lord Tyrinar The Bloody, and source of a good deal of backstory motivation for Haley. The problem being that, by the time Haley gets to the continent where it is located, it's not there anymore; countries there tend to get conquered, renamed, and conquered again every year or so. At current time, there's a Cruelvania, Dictatoria, and two Despotonias (East and West).


Web Original


Western Animation

  • Pineapple Pokopo and Pokoponesia in The Tick (animation) (who was ported directly from the Tick comics). Pokoponesia's primary export is pineapples, in what is surely a giant coincidence.
  • Not a leader, but Mutant League Football give us KT Slayer, the star player of... the Slaycity Slayers. Hmmm, must have had Dethklok negotiate his contract.
  • Azulon City of Avatar: The Last Airbender, presumably named for—and most likely by—Fire Lord Azulon.
    • Omashu was renamed to the city of New Ozai, after the current Fire Lord, after being conquered by the Fire Nation. This of course implies there is another city named Ozai.
      • Omashu itself was, according to legend, named after a pair of lovers named Oma and Shu.
    • Kyoshi Island was named after Avatar Kyoshi, its most famous past resident. Pretty Justified, since she basically made it herself, breaking her home peninsula off from the mainland.
  • In ReBoot, when Megabyte takes over Mainframe, he renames it Megaframe.
  • In The Emperors New School, everything seems to be named after Kuzco. And in the episode where Yzma finally manages to take over, she renames everything after herself. She takes it even further than Kuzco, and sings an awesome Villain Song about this very trope (see the Quotes Page).
  • Kim Possible
    • Dr. Drakken plans way too far ahead, to what he'll name certain places after his "inevitable victory". When he launches an attack on the Great White North, he plans to rename it Drakanada.
    • Shego pulls this herself. In the future where she takes over the world, she changes Middleton to Shegoton, Upperton to North Shegoton, and even the clothing chain store Club Banana to Club Shego, leading to one of quotes in the quote page.
  • Brain of Pinky and the... tried it a few times. He gets his own island country in a bid for US foreign aid, naming it Brainania. When he does end up in control of the Earth—by making a duplicate out of papier-mache and convincing everyone else to go there with free T-shirts—he renames the original Earth "Brainus", presumably following the pattern of either Venus or Uranus. The new planet, on the other hand, was Chia Earth.
  • Even though it's a country, Petoria, named after Peter Griffin of Family Guy, is only the size of the Griffin's house and front/back yard, with the entire city of Quahog surrounding it, effectively making it the smallest country in the world (surrounded by the smallest state in America, no less). To drive the point home, the national flag has the words "PETORIA" and a crude drawing of Peter on a white background.

Peter: I was gonna call it Peterland, but that gay bar down by the airport already took it.

    • And in a slight variation, when Peter decides to "annex" his neighbor Joe's swimming pool as Petoria's "newest province", he renames it "Joehio".
  • Crockerville in The Fairly OddParents TV movie "Abra-Catastrophe."
  • In the Wonderful Life episode of Donkey Kong Country, the Alternate Universe version of Diddy, who's an evil dictator, says that he plans to rename the island Diddyland when he takes over.
  • The Transformers episode, "Megatron's Master Plan." The Autobots have been driven from Earth and Megatron conquers a city. Megs: "I christen this city Megatronia One! Soon there will be many more!"
  • The latest episode of Ben 10 Alien Force concerns another reappearance of original series Big Bad Vilgax, taking place on his home planet/kingdom, Vilgaxia.
  • Phineas and Ferb
    • Dr. Doofenshmirtz built his own floating city and called it... Doofania.
    • There's also the Bad Future version of Danville ruled by Doofenshmirtz as well as the alternate dimension ruled by an eviler Doofenshmirtz from the movie.
    • And of course, a meta-example: the show takes place in Danville, Jefferson County, Some Unspecified State. The show's creators are named Dan and Jeff.
  • Simultaneously subverted and inverted with the title theme park in the direct-to-DVD release Pollyworld. The subversion is the fact that it's a theme park and not a country. The inversion is that Polly Pocket's father created the theme park and named it after her daughter, making it a lot like U.S. fast food chain Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers.
  • In an episode of Sabrina the Animated Series, Sabrina travels back in time three times to prevent herself from being portrayed as a hero. Oon the fourth try, she travels back 100 years to turn the bridge from wood to stone; when she returns, she finds that Greendale is now called Sabrinaville, and everyone in town is now named "Sabrina".
  • In an episode of Gargoyles, Goliath and Elisa end up in a Bad Future where Xanatos has taken over New York City and renamed it "Xanatopia". Except not really, as it's really Lexington pulling the strings. Except not really really, as the whole shenanigan is just an illusion crafted by Puck. The actual Xanatos is above this kind of thing, really.
  • In one episode of Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot, Grizzle actually manages to take over Care-a-Lot, and orders the Care Bears to tear it down in order to build Grizzleton.
  • A veriation occurs in Jimmy Two Shoes. Lucius leaves the name of the town of Miseryville alone, but all the months of the year are re-named after him (Luciapril, Luciember, etc.)
  • On Stoked!, Reef attempts to name an island he and Fin are stranded on "Reeftopia".
  • In Exo Squad, the Big Bad Phaeton renames Chicago to Phaeton City after setting up his capital there.


Real Life

  • Indianapolis, Indiana and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma are examples of state capitals that use this trope.
    • Which trope? Oklahoma's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning "red people". It's not a case of one person naming a city or federated state after themselves.
    • Interestingly, there is a town in Ohio called "Ohio City", but it's not a state capital.
  • The unofficial name of Gliese 581 g (the first exoplanet widely believed to be capable of supporting Terragen life) is Zarmina's World. In a slight variation of this trope, Zarmina is named not after the discoverer (Steven Vogt) but rather after his wife.
  • Alexander the Great was a serial offender. There were about a dozen cities named Alexandria, with the odd Alexandropolis thrown in. Some of them were given translations of his name to the local languages, such as Kandahar in what's now Afghanistan. When he was feeling really creative, he named one city Bucephala, after his horse, Bucephalus. The generals who took over his domains often named cities after themselves, like Antiocheia (now Antakya) for Antiochos and Seleukeia for Seleukos.
    • To be fair, he founded almost all of those cities rather than renaming them from something else.
      • Actually, that is exactly the opposite of what Alexander did. All of the known sites he 'founded' cities on already had important centres or capitals on that spot. It was actually his successors, in particular the Seleucids, who founded cities on virgin territory.
    • One could argue he earned that right, having led the conquest what was then the known world, the known unknown world, and much of the unknown unknown world. The generals... eh... less so.
    • "For many, building such a magnificent city would be the achievement of a life-time. But for Alexander The Great it is merely a brief distraction from greater priorities."
  • Subverted with Emperor Hadrian, who traveled throughout the entire Roman Empire, commissioning buildings and civil works projects wherever he went. Many of those cities renamed themselves Hadrianopolis in order to enjoy the emperor's favor. Played straight with Antinoopolis, the city he founded in memory of his dead lover.
  • The Cult of Personality in North Korea is so widespread that propaganda celebrating the Kim family is legally required to be displayed nearly everywhere.
  • The Russian cities St. Petersburg (named by Peter The Great for the saint that was his namesake), aka Petrograd (renamed during WWI because it sounded too German), aka Leningrad (after Lenin), aka St. Petersburg again; and Stalingrad (now Volgograd). There's a move to rename it back to Stalingrad, not in honour of Stalin but in honour of the famous victory over Germany.
    • Lenin's home town was renamed Ulianovsk, after his real surname, Ulianov. It hasn't been changed back.
    • Tsarskoye Selo, or "Village of the Tsar", is now "Pushkin", after Aleksandr Pushkin, who was not a dictator but instead a famous poet.
    • The Battles of Stalingrad and Leningrad in World War II were so vicious and bloody at least in part because of Stalin's Egopolis tendencies; as well as the tactical advantages they offered the Germans (near-completely unfettered access to the oilfields of the Caucasus, in the case of Stalingrad), it would be a great propaganda coup for the Germans (and subsequent blow to the Soviets) for the cities named after their glorious leader and the founder of their glorious worker's paradise both to fall. Stalin, of course, was not going to let that shit go unopposed. Result? Eighteen-odd months of vicious street-fighting so determined that every individual room in every house would be bitterly contested in the former, and a protracted siege that resulted in daily bombardments and the citizenry eating their own dead in the latter.
    • There are actually a lot of cities renamed after Stalin; Wikipedia has a list
      • A Russian joke:

A general is asked about a specially magnificent medal on his chest. "Ah yes, I got that for my part in the battle of Volgograd. It was presented to me by Volgin himself."[4]

      • Another variant:

After the Joseph Stalin's cult of personality was renounced, it was decided to rename Stalingrad to Volgograd. The next day the Party Central Committee receives a telegram: "No objections. Joseph Volgin."

    • Truth to be told, Stalin reportedly disliked that personality cult, but Magnificent Bastard that he was, encouraged it because of its political usefulness.
    • After Emperor Alexander I conquered Finland from Sweden, he relocated the capital further east (from Turku to Helsinki) and renamed the main street. Because his rule was seen as an improvement (and then that of his nephew Alexander II even more so), the Finns kept the name.
  • Those Wacky Nazis had the German city of Salzgitter receive the title of Herman Göring-Stadt due to the industrial and mining areas built there (Goering was in charge of Nazi Germany's economic development) and the Polish city of Zamosc into Himmlerstadt (after Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS and Gestapo).
    • They also renamed the Polish city of Lodz Litzmannstadt after a World War I general and early supporter of Nazism.
  • Saddam International Airport in Baghdad, now called Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) or Al Anbar Airport. And Saddam City, a region of Baghdad now renamed Sadr City. Under Saddam, Iraq was arguably the most extreme example of this trope, a role later taken by Turkmenistan.
  • Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. However, it's worth noting that Ho Chi Minh died in 1969, a full six years before Saigon fell to North Vietnam. Since it was Saigon that got renamed, not Hanoi, this could also be taunting America.
  • Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo did this a lot, going as far as changing the capital city's name from Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo.
  • Byzantium was originally named after a king named Byzas. After the Roman Emperor Constantine made it the new capital, its name was officially changed to New Rome, but everyone referred to it as Constantinople (Constantine's City). Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople, and it's nobody's business but the Turks.
    • I think you mean "nobody's business but the Turks"...
    • It wasn't actually renamed Constantinople until after Constantine died. And Nova Roma (New Rome) was never the official name, just a reflection of Constantine's desire for it to be as prestigious as Rome had been at the height of the Roman Empire.
  • Queen Victoria. Various locations in the former Empire, especially Canada, Australia and Africa. Mind you, she didn't choose any of them herself: as with other instances of places named after English or British royals, it's usually the discoverer who chooses the name, and most chose Victoria because they sincerely wanted to name something after her, because they respected her.
    • All the places named after her beloved Prince Consort Albert, though most of those came after his death. It's often joked that she would have changed the name of England to Alberta if she thought for one second she could get away with it. She also tried to get her son to agree to reign as King Albert Edward after her death, leading to an endless line of British kings named Albert [Something]. This plan failed despite her son's name being Albert Edward (he chose to reign as Edward VII instead).
    • The Australian state of Victoria was named for her. Its capital Melbourne was named for her Prime Minister, and before that known as Port Phillip (after the Governor of New South Wales). Virtually any suburb of Melbourne dating from before about 1880 or so will have streets somewhere in it named Victoria and Albert -- almost always running parallel to each other.
  • Beijing was originally named Khanbaliq, "city of the Khan", by Kublai Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan. Neither of whom was really named "Khan". Even "Genghis Khan" is a title in its entirety:[5] his real name was Temujin.
  • Exception: George Washington. He was chagrined to find that they named the new capital after him. He actively tried to stop it in favor of a different name. It didn't get much better, there's an entire state named for him (with his face on the state flag!), not to mention the 30 Washington Counties, hundreds of Washington Townships, 50 or so cities named Washington (besides the capital), and hundreds of streets named for him. To be fair, a lot of these, including the state (and even the territory that preceded it, as Washington Territory was formed from the leftovers of Oregon Territory after the State of Oregon formed) came about long after George's death.
  • Virginia; Jamestown, Virginia; and Williamsburg, Virginia were named, in that order, after the Virgin Queen (that is, Elizabeth I), James I and William III.
    • Ironically, Sir Walter Raleigh, the man who named Virginia, is believed by some historians to have been Elizabeth's lover.
      • Speaking of Raleigh, what's the capital of North Carolina again?
    • Also, many towns in the Eastern United States have 'Frederick' in their names, which was a tribute to the Prussian king's aid during the Seven Years War. On a similar vein, a town in Pennsylvania is actually called "King of Prussia".
      • It was named after the King of Prussia Inn that was named after the King of Prussia, so it was name after a place that was named after the person.
      • Also worth noting that Frederick Prince of Wales was the father of King George III (who also had a son called Frederick, better known as the Duke of York). In fact, the one from the song: "Oh, the grand old Duke of York, he had ten thousand men..."
    • Baltimore is named after the Lord Baltimore, who's family coat of arms even became the state flag.
      • His full name was Cecil Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, so he got not only the city, but two Maryland counties, Cecil and Calvert, named after him.
    • New York was named after the Duke of York, King Charles II's brother, who happened at the time to be the head of the Royal Navy—the military branch that won the war that gave England the Dutch colonies. The warrant renaming the colony specifically states that the settlement was renamed after the Duke. (Despite what some think, the city of York in England had nothing to do with it, except in the tangential sense that the duchy is named for the city.)
    • The Carolinas were named after Charles I; Maryland after his queen, Henrietta Maria (unless you prefer to believe it was the Catholic settlers being sneaky - which is wildly unrealistic and even childishly naive, given that their leaders were to a man staunch and even bigoted Protestants/Puritans sent to prevent the settlers from doing this very thing!); its capital, Annapolis after Princess (later Queen) Anne; Charleston, SC, after Charles II; Georgia after George II; Charlotte, NC, after George III's queen; and Louisiana after Louis XIV of France. That's not even getting into smaller cities and county names and whatnot. As mentioned in the entry on Victoria above, these were not named for royals out of compulsion or even the hope of getting some money; these places received royal names because the persons who named them thought it was the right thing to do, nothing more. Colonialism and egotripping might go together, but not necessarily in the way some people assume they do.
      • Charlotte being named after the current queen must have made the Battle of Charlotte a bit more humiliating.
      • In general the South had a large number of expatriate Cavaliers who often chose royalist-sounding names just as New England (which was Roundhead to the point of reimmigrating would-be soldiers to Cromwell's army) tended to have a fondness for names that remind you of the scarier kinds of sermons.
    • Denver was named after an early governor of Kansas Territory, James W. Denver.
    • Seattle was named after Chief Sealth, who was admired by the white settlers in the area. Notably, he did not want the city named after him because it went against his religious beliefs.
  • About half the geographic locations in New South Wales and Tasmania were named after NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie, mostly by Macquarie himself.
    • Another fun fact; you can actually tell approximately how old any particular street in Sydney's (Named after Lord Sydney, of Course) CBD is by its name; almost all of Sydney City's streets are named after an English Politician or Monarch contemporary to the time the street was built (With the exception of Elizabeth; they were talking about the first one, not Her Majesty Liz Windsor.)
    • Further, All of Australia's capital cities operate on the same principle, with the exception of Darwin and Canberra (Canberra was purpose built.)
  • Aztec (Later Mexica) Leader "Tenoch" named the city after himself. Tenochtitlan became one of the largest cities of the late-medieval world. Interestingly, modern Tenochtitlan—a.k.a. Mexico City—is the largest city in the Americas and the third-largest metropolitan area in the world.
  • Roman Emperor Commodus renamed Rome, the months (every month[6]), the legions, the Senate and even the Roman people after himself.
  • According to legend, Rome was already an example, with Romulus, but in reality, it's probably the other way around; Romulus and Remus were mythical characters who were likely named after Rome.
  • And, if Suetonius is to be believed, Nero wanted to rename Rome "Neropolis" and replace the Olympic Games with an identical competition called the "Neronia".
  • British imperialist racist Cecil Rhodes conquered a little patch of land (modern Zimbabwe and Zambia) in Southern Africa by slaughtering everyone who opposed his right to it, and promptly named it Rhodesia.
  • King Wilhelm I of Prussia named Wilhelmshaven after himself.
  • Subversion: William Penn reportedly attempted to decline the honor of having Pennsylvania named after him, only to be told by Charles II that the colony was being named after his father, and not him.
  • Detroit's main street is named Woodward Avenue, supposedly meaning "toward the woods". However, it and many other streets in Detroit were given their names by Augustus Woodward, who was Chief Justice of the Michigan Territory at the time, and was responsible for redesigning the city after a big fire burned it down in 1805. (His grandiose scheme was ultimately not implemented for lack of funds and population, but not before five of his planned major avenues were built.)[7]
  • Non-country example: Roman emperors Julius and Augustus got their names added to the Julian Calendar as months (July and August), replacing the previous names (Quintilis and Sextilis respectively). Subsequent Roman emperors tried to do the same, renaming other months after themselves (and sometimes after previous emperors as well), but no other changes lasted beyond their deaths.
  • Inverted with Calgary (formerly Fort Brisebois). Lieutenant-Colonel MacLeod named it after Captain Brisebois. When Brisebois married a Métis woman, MacLeod changed it, not wanting the place to be named after a miscegenist.
  • The Canadian province of Prince Edward Island (itself named after Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, the father of the future Queen Victoria) has as its capital Charlottetown, named after Queen Charlotte, the consort of the king of the day, George III (who himself has one of the other towns of the island, Georgetown).
    • Semi-averted with the Canadian province of Alberta, which was to be named in the honour of Princess Louise, one of Victoria's daughters and the wife of the Governor General of Canada. However, Louise requested that the name also honour her father, Prince Albert, so instead of her first name, one of her other surnames, Alberta, was used instead.
      • It would have also been confusing to have a Louisiana in Canada!
      • Still got through somewhat with Lake Louise.
  • Williamstown, Massachusetts and the college it contains, Williams College, are named after the same man, Ephraim Williams, who left his estates to Massachusetts in his will on the condition that they use them to build a school, and that the school and the town its in both be named after him.
  • Herod the Great had a pleasure palace/small city created for himself and called it Herodium.
  • An unintentional one for Barack Obama: there is a small city in Japan called Obama, which was founded long before he was even born and is etymologically unrelated to his name. They did erect a statue of him and churn out merchandise related to him after he became known as the presidential candidate/president.
  • There have been quite a few places named for Josip Broz Tito; Wikipedia has a list. Notably, however, every city named for him in the Yugoslav era got renamed to something else after the country broke up. Which happened rather rapidly after his death.
    • In 1949 in former Czechoslovakia the town of Zlín was renamed to Gottwaldov after the first communist (or, using terminology of the day, "worker") president Klement Gottwald. It was changed back immediately after the Velvet Revolution.
  • King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia.
    • and King Khalid Military City, also in Saudi Arabia.
    • Screw mere cities, Saudi Arabia is this applied to a whole country—it is named after its ruling dynasty. It would be like Britain being called Windsorland.
  • The Belgian city of Charleroi (Charles-king) is named after the famously imbred Charles II of Spain, ruler of the Spanish Low Countries when the initial fortress was constructed. The celebrated king was inglorious enough that most of the locals are persuaded the city takes its names from either or both of the much more prestigious Charlemagne and Charles V von Habsburg, both raised in the Low Countries. The same Charles V also named a Belgian fortress Philippeville in honour of his son; and his sister Mary of Hungary christened Mariembourg after herself when she was governor of the Low Countries.
  • The nearby French city of Charleville-Mézières was created by Charles Gonzague, duke of a whole load of places, to serve as the capital of his brand-new principality of Arches.
  • Vallejo, California, named for General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. The next city south is named Benicia after his wife (though her name was pronounced ben-NEESE-ee-ah and the town is usually called ben-EESH-ah or ben-ISH-ah).
    • That's because they prononunced a Spanish name as if it was English.
  • Similar to the Washington example above, Charles de Gaulle expressed his wish that there wouldn't be any place named after him. So the French waited until he was dead before naming/renaming a bunch of stuff after him (most prominently, De Gaulle International Airport, just outside of Paris).
  • The city of Cartagena, Chile, is named after captain Luis de Cartagena, scribe for conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, who was entrusted these lands in the XVI century. Since 2004, Osvaldo Cartagena (a direct descendant?) is the mayor of the city; he's been accused of preferring to appoint relatives to public offices at his city.
  • It is usual in all of Romania (not only Transylvania) for the places of birth of famous people to bear the name of those people. Most of the time they are small settlements which barely fit the Egopolis category, but it is still an example.
    • A good example of Egopolis in Romania was the town Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, named after the Romanian dictator (that's right, it bared both the first AND last name of the guy, which is really impractical). Nadia Comaneci was born and started her career there.
    • There's also Karl-Marx-Stadt in East Germany, which after reunification immediately reverted to its original name of Chemnitz, though it was East Germany's Communist leaders that named the city rather than Karl Marx himself.
    • Leverkusen in West germany was named after the founder of a big chemical company in the city. (This is not a straight example of this trope.)
  • Melbourne, Australia, was founded by a man called John Batman. For a while it was called Batmania, until it was officially renamed Melbourne in 1836.
  • The town of Vaasa in Finland. Named after the royal family of Vasa of Sweden. [And Poland.] This was in the days when the Swedes ruled Finland.
      • Vaasa was renamed 1825 as Nikolainkaupunki (Town of Nikolai) by Czar Nicholas I of Russia. It was renamed Vaasa c. 1918, when Finland became independent.
    • Likewise, the towns of Gammalkarleby and Nykarleby - literally "Old Charlestown" and "New Charlestown" after King Charles IX of Sweden.
    • The town of Brahestad after the Chancellor Per Brahe.
    • The town of Kristiina after queen Christina of Sweden.
    • The town of Maarianhamina (Mary's Haven) after Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia.
  • Before the 20th century there is an occasional inversion of this trope: title-holders may be referred to by the name of their nation. For example, the king of England in Hamlet is just referred to as literally "England," and Oscar Wilde made a point of referring to the Prince of Wales as just "Wales."
    • This tradition is still followed to some degree today by the British Royal Family: when members of the family who hold the title of Prince or Princess enroll in school or join the military (which all Princes must do, by family tradition), they use their geographic title, if any, as their surname. Thus Prince Harry, a member of the British Army's Blues and Royals, serves as Captain Henry Wales; when his cousin Beatrice went to the University of London, she was enrolled as Beatrice York.
    • Also certain dynasties treated the name of their country as family names, e. g. the Habsburgs being called "the House of Austria". This is why in The Three Musketeers the French queen is called Anne of Austria even though she was the daughter of the the king of Spain and had been born and raised there.
  • The Philippines is named after King Philip of Spain. He never visited.
  • The czech entrepreneur Tomáš Baťa founded several towns around the world, naming them after himself (Batawa in Ontario, Batadorp in the Netherlands, Batapur in Pakistan, Batanagar and Bataganj in India...) and centering them on his shoe factories. His half-brother Jan Antonín also founded Batatuba, Batayporã and Bataguassu in Brazil.
  1. ↑ Every male member in this family who ascends the throne seems to bear this name.
  2. ↑ We don't know who actually named the city
  3. ↑ You'd think the official beverage would be Nes CWC.
  4. ↑ Don't you love Russian Humor?
  5. ↑ It roughly translates to "Oceanic ruler", which should give you a pretty good indication as to his ambitions.
  6. ↑ That doesn't mean he named every month "Commodus", he had many names
  7. ↑ They are today Woodward, Jefferson, Grand River, Michigan, and Gratiot Avenues.
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