Why are some placenames changed to reflect the actual sound of the place, and others left?

Question

Like for example, a long time ago English-speakers used to call Beijing Peking, but now it's considered proper to use Beijing.

Then you've got straight-forward names like France which is France in both French and English.

But then you've got like Germany which is Deutschland and Japan which is Nippon. Why don't we modernize these ones?

Answer 1

I think there's a misunderstanding in your question ..

It is true that we tend to ANGLICIZE names (that is, as Americans and English people, we tend to change names or pronounce names the way WE see/hear them) but I think you're confusing a few different concepts ..

For example, in the United States, we say that we live in America and our neighbors down south live in Mexico (meks-i-coh) when in fact we are only ONE of the three Americas, and actually we live in the UNITED STATES of America.  By direct contrast, the Mexican people in their language say they live in Mexico (Meh-hee-coh) and call the US, Los Estados Unidos which means the United States in their language.  I'm positive that's why Germany is Deutschland in their language though I'm not sure why WE call Germany "Germany".. I think most likely it had to do with the people that lived there .. the Germanic tribes.

In the case of Peking/Beijing, I think what you're seeing is a name change, more than a language translation.  For example, New York used to be called New Amsterdam, since originally it was a Dutch colony ..  also the nation of Russia used to be called the USSR or the United Soviet Socialist Republic.  Kind of like what happened to Persia (Iran).

So why aren't we modernizing anymore?  I'm guessing because it might be considered rude by today's standards! ; )

Hope this helps!