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Comment by arrowsmith | Hacker News Reader

It’s a good analogy because to rename Ukraine’s capital city after its conqueror would be a gigantic “fuck you” to the people of Ukraine, rubbing salt into the fresh wounds of their conquest, which is exactly what North Vietnam did to the South.

You’re just doing the typical HN thing of responding to an analogy by pointing out differences that are irrelevant to the point of the analogy.

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>> capital city after its conqueror would be a gigantic “fuck you” to the people

As how most every port city in North America is named by whatever western explorer first put it on a map? From Botany Bay to Vancouver, Los Angeles and even Virginia USA, placenames are pulled from the culture of the conquerors. Only when one gets into the hinterlands do local names appear.

Manhattan?

Eh? There's a ton of Native American place-names on the East Coast? Including at least three States.

What white man is Chicago named after?

Well, you touch on a pattern: costal cities are named by European explorers on ships. Wikipedia states that the first use of "Chicago" was by the explorer La Salle, who was on foot. Explorers on foot are much more likely to use names derived from local language, Canada/Kanata being probably the most famous example. But areas mapped and explored by explorers on ships (ports/mountains and such) are generally given European names.

That is interesting. Any idea of why that is?

presumably it has something to do with the fact that when sailing an oceangoing vessel you aren't likely to be interacting with others for much of any reason until you pull into port. Which when a lot of these places were named, didnt exist. Shore excursions would have been ones where the large ship is moored off the coast and rowboats will be sent to shore with a dozen or so people for a temporary stay. Almost all of the food and safety would be back on the big ship

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