Which spelling should be used: 'Kiev' or 'Kyiv'

Obviously, this is an incredibly sensitive issue today because of the recent historical events unfolding. When we’re writing, should we use the ‘Kyiv’ romanization to reflect the Ukrainian or the more traditional ‘Kiev’ spelling that is seen as reflecting the Russian.

Молитва за Україну

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Agreed that it’s a sensitive issue, but if we’re discussing the city in a historical context, I’d use the (English) name that was used to refer to it in the period. Otherwise, we can end up with a little mini-geneology for location names that have been significant in many different conflicts. Imaginary example: Littleton (originally Bigton, later Middleton, then Biggishton, now part of Greater Littleton).

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I’ll note that Indy refers to “Leningrad” regularly, a city that has changed names a few times over the years (not to mention Stalingrad).

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@jasonab,
Yes, but there’s a difference between a city outright changing names and an alphabet transliteration simply becoming more popular.

Good question in general I am for using the spelling of the country where the city is in. In Europe a lot of signs to foreign places are in the local language. Parijs = Paris is not an issue. Bastogne/ Bastenaken

Luttich= Liege/Luik almost made me take the wrong exit (wtf is Luttich).

Belgium actually changed the sign to Rijssel ( the Flemish name for Lille) into Lille as for some foreigners unsurprisingly didn’t manage to deduce that.

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