Question

Why was the name Constantinople changed to the name Istanbul?

A. The Ottomans wanted to eliminate any reminder of Byzantine influence.

B. Many people already used a term related to the name Istanbul.

C. The Ottomans didn't want to live in a city named after their enemy.

Answer 1

@paki help!

Answer 2

"Because the Republic of Turkey declared it the official name in 1923 and the Turkish Postal Telegraph and Telephone Office began sending back all mail addressed to the city by any other name from 1930.

This is because the city had been called by several names over the centuries. It's original name was Lygos, probably a Thracian word, and then Byzantium when it became a Greek trading town. The Roman Emperor Septimus Severus renamed it Augusta Antonia after his son Antonius. The Emperor Constantine established it as his new capital in the east of the Roman Empire and called it Nova Roma (New Rome) and Roma Constantinopolitana, though it was generally called Constantinopolis (the City of Constantine) after his death.


Over the centuries the city had a range of nicknames, the most common being simply hē Polis or "the City". Swedish Vikings who served there in the Byzantine emperors' Varangian Guard called it Miklagarðr or Miklagard meaning "the big city" in Old Norse. People both in the city and in the "