Mumbai vs. Bombay: “Will Bollywood become Mumblywood?”

“On Language” columnist William Safire is the latest to dig into why and how places around the world change their names. He covers the big recent switches—Bombay to Mumbai, Burma to Myanmar, Upper Volta to Burkina Faso—most of which have been inspired by efforts to eliminate remnants of their colonial past. But Safire also looks at another interesting part of the name-change game: The product angle.

“The potential for commercial fallout exists,” he writes in the New York Times magazine. “Will Bollywood become Mumblywood? Will the global acceptance of Mumbai—from the Marathi name of the goddess Mumbadevi—by media standard-bearers affect the Bombay Company, a U.S. outfit that sells furniture? Or to Bombay Sapphire gin? (I recommend ‘Mumbai Safire gin.’) Spokesmen for both companies refuse to speak for the record, but I take it that neither company is thinking of a name change, because they don’t want to confuse customers. The name of a place may be subject to transformation by its residents, but a brand is a brand.”