Ukraine, late 19th century. They established the rules of modern Ukrainian. The country depended on the Russian Empire, but thanks to liberal imperial socioeconomic policies and, after centuries of war and conflict, the country experienced a cultural and economic bloom through a peaceful period. The first university was founded in the capital and the first opera house was inaugurated. The telegraph, the tram and many infrastructures came for the first time, and in that context they regulated the language. One of these rules said that the name of the capital was that of the countries of the region, and that its latinized form, that is, that Kyiv was the exonym to be used by the Western countries. But the Ukrainian effort had no results and the name of Kiev, which comes from the Russian toponym, continued to be used mainly abroad. On the one hand, Ukraine never had a State of its own, and until then it was part of the dominant States of Russian or Polish. On the other hand, in addition to open socio-economic policies, the imperial government instituted a strict rusification of the Ukrainians, Poles and Jews living in the country.

On 20 November 1917, the Republic of Ukraine was proclaimed, but independence lasted only a short time for Ukrainians. In 1920 the Soviets took the country and in the next six decades the process of rusification intensified with the use of the exonym Kiev.

With the restoration of independence in 1991, the Government undertook efforts to revolutionize the process of rusification. In 1995, laws were established to bring the toponyms into the Latin alphabet, and it was confirmed that Kyiv was the official exonimo of the capital. But the campaign didn't succeed until the political conflicts pushed him. Following the Crimea crisis in 2014 and the Donbass War, the use of Kyiv in English spread widely. And recently, as a result of the Russian invasion, it's spreading to more languages.

The United Nations recommends the use of the Kyiv form in English and Spanish, even though the Royal Spanish Academy supports Kiev. But so far the UN itself has proposed using Kiev in French.

Pulling the exonyms

For exonyms, there is no clear standard or criterion, and they are often contrasted. Do we have to keep the habit or change the names with respect to the origin? Should writing or pronunciation be prioritized? Do you have to use the same way in all the languages that use the Latin alphabet or each one of them should bring it to it?

Paris spells the same in French, English or Basque, but pronounces differently. On the other hand, China, China in Spanish and Cina in Italian speak the same way, although they are not written in the same way. In addition, they are quite far from the original pronunciation in Chinese; Zhongguo or Zhonghua would be the closest one phonetically.

And when we're in China, how do we have to tell the capital? Beijing or Beijing? Peking was the quintessential latinized name for a long time, and that's where Beijing comes from. Beijing is closer to the original pronunciation and, for example, is used in English. In German, Russian or Spanish, however, the Beijing form is maintained. Italians call it Pechino.

Also in Euskera we tend to venerate the main toponyms of the area (Bordeaux, Madrid, Barcelona...), but in that they dominate the Italians: The French capital is called Parig, the city of Frankfurt Francoforte…

So if there is no clear and unified criterion, will Kyiv or Kiev maintain it? Will Germany remain dozens of exonyms (Germany, Allemagne, Saksa, Niemcy, Tyskland…) or will the original Deustchland be extended? Do we ever call Hungary Magyarorszag? Or more easily to Finland Suomi?