Geographical name changes in Greece

The geographical name change in Greece was an initiative by the Greek government to replace non-Greek geographical and topographic names within the Greek Republic with Greek names as part of a policy and ideology of Hellenisation.The main proponent of the initiative has been a Greek homogenization social-engineering campaign which aimed to assimilate or obliterate geographical or topographical names that were deemed foreign and divisive against Greek unity or considered to be "bad Greek". The names that were considered foreign were usually of Ottoman, Albanian, Slavic and Turkish origin. Most of the name changes ocurred in the ethnically heterogenous northern Greece and the Arvanite settlements in central Greece. Place names of Greek origin were also renamed after names in Classical Greece.

The policy commenced after the independence of Greece from the Ottoman Empire in the early 1830s, after the territorial expanses of Greece and continued into the Greek Republic. To this day use of the old Turkish, Albanian or Slavic placenames by authorities, organisations and individuals is penalized under Greek law.

Map of current Greece

Notable geographical name changes

Since 1977 all Turkish village names of Western Thrace have been changed to Greek names. Western Thrace is home to a large Turkish minority.

Old name	Named changed to:	Notes
Liopesi	Paiania	Old name was Arvanite
Menidi	Acharnes	Old name was Arvanite
Gümülcine	Komotini	Gümülcine was the Ottoman version of the old original Byzantine name Koumoutzina
Dedeagach	Alexandroupoli	Turkish name of Dedeagach remained the official name of the city until 1920 when it was renamed Alexandroupoli in honor of King Alexander of Greece.