The Greek state has systematically pursued a policy ofHellenisation following its independence from theOttoman Empire in the early 1830s.^[1][2] This ideology included replacing all geographical and topographic names with revived names rooted inClassical Greece – that is, any name deemed foreign, divisive against Greek unity, or considered to be "bad Greek" was hidden or assimilated.^[2] The names that were considered foreign were usually ofAlbanian,Slavic orTurkish origin.^[2]Byzantine Greek was considered bad Greek at the time of the establishment of the state until well after theBalkan Wars; accordingly those places were also renamed.^[3][4]

The aim of the name changes was to cover the memory of the "dark past": meaning Roman, Frankish, Venetian, and especially Turkish rule. The name changes followed the territorial expanses of Greece and continued into the Greek Republic. They occurred in theArvanite settlements in central Greece since 1830, inThessaly since 1881, after the Balkan Wars inMacedonia since 1913, andWestern Thrace since 1920. The last name changes occurred in 1998.^[2]

Wherever possible, places were renamed after the learned names inClassical Greece, mainly by consultingDescription of Greece byPausanias.^[2] The process of renaming was undertaken from two directions: "bottom-up" and "top-down". Central and southern Greece followed the "bottom-up" approach with different towns competing for the name of a nearby archaeological site. In this regard, even the Arvanites of Attica demanded that their place names be Hellenised. In contrast, the changes in the north were made "top-down" with a team of historians, folklorists, and archaeologists and archaising names foreign to the inhabitants were introduced. Railway companies also gave their stations ancient names so that European visitors could easily recognise them.^[2]

By covering the "dark past" and recalling classical Greece the new names were selected to align historical consciousness with the national narrative. To this day, the use of the old Albanian, Slavic, or Turkish place names by authorities, organisations, and individuals is penalised under Greek law.^[5][6] The result of these policies was a successful restoration of a distant past through nationalism to show that modern Greece was "really the same country as classical Greece".^[2]

The area that is today's Greece was inhabited by various peoples throughout history, and the country's toponyms reflect their diversity of origins.^[2] The Hellenisation of toponyms in Greece started soon afterGreek independence.Many place names in Greece of non-Greek origin were replaced by ancient names that were supposed to have some connection to the area. For example, the ancient name ofPiraeus was revived in the 19th century, after it had been calledDrakos in Greek,Porto Leone in Venetian, andAslan Limanı in Turkish for centuries, after thePiraeus Lion which stood there.^[7]

In 1909, the existence of large numbers of non-Greek place names were a nuisance to the government. In 1909 the government-appointed commission on toponyms report that every one village in three in Greece (30% of the total) should have its name changed (of the 5,069 Greek villages, 1,500 were considered as "speaking a barbaric language".^[2]

During theBalkan Wars, Greece doubled its territory and population, but it brought various large non-Greek populations into its border, notably including Slavic-speaking Orthodox, mostly Turkish-speaking Muslims from Macedonia, Muslim Albanians, Orthodox Arvanites andAromanians in Epirus. After theSecond Balkan War against Bulgaria in 1913, the majority of Slavic speaking Christians were transferred to Bulgaria as part of a population exchange agreement (Treaty of Neuilly) between the two countries. Moreover, after the end ofGraeco-Turkish War and the subsequentTreaty of Lausanne andpopulation exchange between Greece and Turkey, all Muslims except Western Thrace, were exchanged for all Orthodox in Turkey except for those in Istanbul. The villages of the exchanged populations (Bulgarians and Muslims) in Greece were resettled with Greeks from Asia Minor, and the Balkans (mainly from Bulgaria and Yugoslavia). By 1928, Greece's demography had drastically changed from the position in 1830: the country had turned into a nation-state, non-Greeks and most of the population spoke Greek.^{[citation needed]} The Arvanites and Aromanians today mostly proclaim themselves as Greeks. AfterWorld War II the remaining Muslim Albanians were expelled due to collaboration activity and war crimes.

After the departure of Slav and Muslim populations in 1912-1926^[8] the Greek government renamed many places with revived ancient names, local Greek-language names, or translations of the non-Greek names and non-Greek names were officially removed.^[9][10] Although the bulk of the population was Greek^[11][12][13] the renaming was considered a way to establish a collective ethnic consciousness.^[14] Several historical Greek names from Asia Minor were also introduced in the region mainly by the resettled refugees. ManyDemotic Greek names were also replaced by aKatharevousa Greek form, usually different only morphologically. This process started in 1926 and continued in the 1960s.^[10]

The older name forms of the renamed settlements were mainly ofGreek,Slavic,Turkish,Aromanian orAlbanian origin. Other names that were considered foreign were also ofFrankish^[15] andItalian origins.^[16][17][18] According to ongoing research being carried out at theInstitute of Neohellenic Research in Athens, between 1913 and 1996, the names of 4,413 settlements were legally changed in Greece. In each case, the renamings were recorded in the officialGovernment Gazette. The regional breakdown in renamings is:Macedonia: 1,805 renamings;Peloponnese: 827 renamings;Central Greece: 519 renamings;Thessaly: 487 renamings;Epirus: 454 renamings;Thrace: 98 renamings;Crete: 97 renamings;Aegean Islands: 79 renamings;Ionian Islands: 47 renamings.^[19]

Eastern Central Greece was home to theArvanites, an Albanian speaking people who migrated to the area in the 14th century. Until the 19th century some parts ofAttica andBoeotia were populated by Arvanites, many of the place names were also Arvanite. After the establishment of Greece in 1830, most of the names have been changed, especially to names unused since antiquity, fromClassical Greece.

Epirus had a Greek majority population before annexation to Greece (1913),^[21][22] with minorities ofAromanians and Albanians. A part of the Albanian minority, known asCham Albanians, resided in the coastal area and were expelled from the area afterWorld War II by theEDES resistance group. An unknown number of Aromanians and Orthodox Albanians, in some sources called Arvanites, still live in the area, who today identify mostly as Greek. Particularly in the early 20th-century Albanian place names of Epirus have been systematically changed to Greek, thereby erasing the former Albanian presence in the landscape.^[23]

Till 1912, the area had a very heterogeneous population consisting ofSlavic,Turkish, Greek,Jews andAromanians andMegleno-Romanians. Most of the geographical names were of non Greek origin, the Greek government planned to change this. Between 1913 and 1928 the Slavic names of hundreds of villages and towns were Hellenised by a Committee for the Changing of Names, which was charged by the Greek government with"the elimination of all the names which pollute and disfigure the beautiful appearance of our fatherland".^[24] Between 1912 (Balkan Wars) and 1928 (after thePopulation exchange between Greece and Turkey), the non Greek inhabitants were largely gone and instead of them Greek refugees from the Ottoman Empire settled in the area thereby changing its demography. Toponym changes in each modern prefecture are listed in,

• Drama Prefecture
• Florina Prefecture
• Grevena Prefecture
• Imathia Prefecture
• Kavala Prefecture
• Pella Prefecture
• Pieria Prefecture
• Xanthi Prefecture

Since 1977 all Turkish village names ofWestern Thrace have been changed to Greek names.^[6] Western Thrace is home to a large Turkish minority.

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• Banitsa →Vevi (1926)
• Boimitsa →Axioupoli (1927)
• Kailar →Ptolemaida (1927)
• Khandak → Candia →Heraklion
• Lamia → Zitouni →Lamia
• Cydonia – Canea –Chania

• Prontuario dei nomi locali dell'Alto Adige, a massive renaming of German toponyms in the Austrian territory annexed by Italy afterWorld War I (today'sSouth Tyrol)
• Commission for the Determination of Place Names, massive renaming of toponyms in the territory annexed by Poland afterWorld War II

• For a comprehensive list and database of place name changes in Greece (by settlement, date and year of change), seeInstitute for Neo Hellenic Research: Name Changes of Settlements in Greece
• "Pandektis: Name Changes of Settlements in Greece". Retrieved2016-11-30. List compiled by theInstitute for Neohellenic Research

• Geography of Greece
• Greek nationalism
• Geographical renaming
• Culture of Greece
• Place name etymologies
• Former toponyms in Greece
• Names of places in Greece
• Society of Greece
• Discrimination in Greece

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