[Brian-L]

My name is Brian Lake and will remain exactly that wherever I may travel and in all countries I may visit, for however short or long. So why do cities and nations have different spellings whenever referred to in other countries? One example of numerous instances: Deutschland is known as such to its inhabitants. Yet we insist on calling it Germany. Why?
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Name : Brian-L, Gender : M, City : Adelaide, State : NA Country : Australia, 

[Tomas S.]

This is by no means a unique feature of English. Examples:

Milano (Italian) = Mailand (German) Moskva (Russian) = Moskau (German) Mainz (German) = Magonza (Italian) Aachen (German) = Aix-la-Chapelle (French) One reason might be to make the name better to pronounce. Another aspect is that the name in the foreign language often derives from an earlier version of the local name. Curiously enough, new alternative names seem not to be coined anymore. When we Germans encounter a geographical name that has no established German alternative, we try to pronounce the original name (more or less successfully), even if we risk getting our tongue in knots.

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Name : Tomas S., Gender : M, Age : 37, City : Tübingen, State : NA Country : Germany, Occupation : electrical engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Katja]

The cities that have a long history with the Finns have their own name in Finnish language. London is Lontoo, Paris is Pariisi, Rome is Rooma. As for cities the Finns had very little or no relations in history to, or cities that are relatively 'new,' they have kept their own name and spelling in Finnish language. Like New York, Madrid, Budapest. People have their own names unless they are royalty or otherwise known characters such as Biblical names. Swedish Carl Gustaf is Kaarle Kustaa and Queen Mary is Maria. John is Johannes, Paul is Paavali. By the way, Germany is Saksa in Finnish because the Sacs region is the closest to Finland. Anyway, if a name is historically 'established,' it is likely to have its own translation and spelling in a language.

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Name : Katja, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 35, City : Renko, State : NA Country : Finland, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : 4 Years of College, 

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