Users of Neo-Latin have taken the Latin language to places the Romans never went; hence a need arose to make Latin names of cities that did not exist when Latin was a living language.

Strategies for constructing Latin names

The first places that needed Latin names were encountered by Bible translators, who had a need to figure out what to call the many place names in the Bible in Latin. They either reworked the place names into Latin or Greek shapes; in one version, Yerushalem (tentative reconstruction of a more ancient Hebrew version of the name) becomes Hierosolyma, doubtless influenced by Greek ιερος (hieros), "holy". Or, they adopted them directly, often treating the new place names as indeclinable nouns; here Yerushalem is brought over as Ierusalem, with the Latin I being prononuced as an English Y sound and the /sh/ being transliterated to the closest Latin sound, /s/. http://www.cwru.edu/univlib/preserve/Etana/SMITH.JERUv1/SMITH.JERUv1.250.273.pdf

Similar strategies are used with United States and North America and other place names that Latin writers needed to give Latin names to. A number of methods are used:
* A classical ending such as -um or -a is added or substituted on the end of the source word. Hence Baltimorum for "Baltimore," Albania for "Albany."
* The words already fit into Latin declensions, as do Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Atlanta.
* Calques are resorted to if the New World name is based on an Old World name; the various Parises in the United States are likely to become Lutetia, and Novum Eboracum or Neo-Eboracum represents New York, because Eboracum is the city of York in England.
* The words are respelled to eliminate non-Latin letters; hence Washington becomes Vasingtonium. Note that "V" in Latin is pronounced as an English "W" There was no W in Latin.
* The words are adjusted to fit Latin declensions; Kansas appears as either Cansas, Cansatis or Cansa, Cansae; Chicago, Ohio, and Idaho become consonant stems, with genitives Chicagonis, Ohionis, Idahonis, &c.
* The words are re-interpreted to fit Latin declensions; Illinois is treated as a third-declension noun.
* The words are treated as indeclinable, like some Biblical names; Connecticut is sometimes treated this way.
In many cases, there is no consensus as to how to treat any given names, and variants exist. If a university or an episcopal see is in a town, the odds increase that there is a standard form hallowed by usage. Note that names of cities are usually feminine in gender in Latin, despite ending in -us. This rule is not always strictly observed in the New World
*There are latin forms of Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, and other Oceanian-South Pacific communities as well.
*One example is London, Ontario which can be translateable to Londinium in Latin, while the rest of the other non-Latin languages like Greek and French for other Londons that are not London, England is spelt "London" (from English).

Here are the names that are listed in Latin and its modern meaning on the right for the world, except for Europe, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Kurdistan.
*This list includes Azerbaijan, Kurdistan southeast of Arbil, Abkhazia, Chechnya, Tatarstan, Dagestan, Malta and Pantelleria, and the whole of Kazakhstan, and Russia east of the ural mountains.

Note on word endings

Latin being an inflected language, names in a Latin context may have different word-endings to those shown here, which are given in the nominative case. For instance Roma (Rome) may appear as Romae meaning "at Rome" (locative), "of Rome" (genitive) or "for Rome" (dative), as Romam meaning "to Rome" (accusative), or indeed as Romā with a long a, probably not indicated in the orthography, meaning "from Rome" (ablative). Similarly names ending in -um or -us may occur with -i or -o, and names ending in -us may occur with -um. The words urbs and civitas may occur as urbis, urbi, or urbe, and civitatis, civitati or civitate.

List of names

Latin Name	English Name, name(s) , name(s) , province , state
Alexandria (Aegyptus)¹	Alexandria (Al-Iskandriyah), Egypt
Alexandria (Colombia Britannica)	Alexandria, British Columbia
Alexandria (Ontario)	Alexandria, Ontario
Alexandria (Virginia)	Alexandria, Virginia
Algeris	Algiers, Algeria
Arae Flaviae	Rottweil, Germany
Arbela, Arbila	Erbil, Arbil
Ascalon	Ashkelon, Israel
Atlanta	Atlanta, Georgia
Augusta	Augusta, Maine
Baltimorum, Baltimori	Baltimore, Maryland
Bona Aera	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Bostonia	Boston, Massachusetts
Cansae, Civitas	Kansas City
Carolinapolis	Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Cantabrigia	Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, Ontario or Cambridge, England
Cincinnati	Cincinnati, Ohio
Civitas Alphabetica	Alphabet City (New York, New York)
Civitas California	California City, California
Citivas Florida	Florida City, Florida
Civitas Oklahoma	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Citivas Panama	Panama City, Florida
Columbus	Columbus, North Carolina
Corpus Christi	Corpus Christi, Texas
Cultellus Flavus	Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada
Damascus	Damascus (Dimashq), Syria
Edessa	Sanli Urfa
Equus Albus	Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
Flumen Januarii	Rio de Janeiro
Fredericopolis	Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
Hippo Regius	Bone, Algeria
Hierosolyma²	Jerusalem
Indianapolis (4)	Indianapolis, Indiana
Jericho²	Jericho, West Bank (Palestine)
Leptis Magna, Lepcis Magna	near Tripoli, Libya
Londinium, Africa Australis	London, South Africa
Londinium (Ontario)	London, Ontario
Ludovicopolis	Louisville, Kentucky
Marathon (Ontario)	Marathon, Ontario
Medaba	Mecca (Makkah), Saudi Arabia
Medina, Arabia	Medina, Saudi Arabia
Medina, Nova Eburaca	Medina, New York
Melburnium, Victoria (Regna)	Melbourne, Australia
Mons Regius, Marianopolis, Villa Maria	Montreal, Quebec
Minneapolis (4)	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Nova Aurelia, Novum Aurelium	New Orleans, Louisiana
Nova Helvetia	Nueva Suecia (New Switzerland), Uruguay
Novum Baltimorum	New Baltimore, Michigan
Novum Hamburgium	New Hamburg, Ontario
Novum Eboracum	New York, New York
Nowum Glasgovium	New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada
Novum Londinium*	New London, Connecticut
Olympia (Vasingtonia)	Olympia, Washington
Oxonia	Oxford, England
Philadelphia¹ (America)	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia	Amman, Jordan
Phoenix¹, Arizona	Phoenix, Arizona
Praetoria?	Pretoria, South Africa
Providenia?	Provideniya, Russia, west of Alaska
Providentia	Providence, Rhode Island
Urbs Quebecis	Quebec City, Quebec
Urbs Reginae	Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Rubricobacilensis	Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Regiopolis	Kingston, Jamaica
Regiopolis, ON	Kingston, Ontario
Sancti Spiriti	Sancti Spiriti, Argentina
Sanctus Johannes	Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Sanctus Johannes Terrae Novae	St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Sanctus Paulus	São Paulo, Brazil
Sarnia	Sarnia, Ontario
Sicagum	Chicago, Illinois
Sinus Tonitralis	Thunder Bay, Ontario
Tempe (Arizona)	Tempe, Arizona
Tiberias	Tiberias (Teverya), Israel
Tingis	Tangier, Morocco
Tripolis¹	Tripoli, Libya
Tunis	Tunis, Tunisia
Vasingtonium	Washington, DC
Victoria (Regna), Colombia Britannica	Victoria, British Columbia
Vigornia	Worcester, England
Vigornia	Worcester, Massachusetts

# Latinized form of the Greek-derived name.
# Latinized form of a Hebrew derived name
# Latinized form of an Amerindian languages-derived name.
# only polis is a Greek derived name.

See also

* Latin names of islands
There are major synergies with:
* Names of European cities in different languages
* List of city name changes

External links

*Graesse, Orbis Latinus
*Hofmann: Lexicon Universale

Cities
Category:Lists of cities
Category:Lists of place names