![]() | Berlin-to-Kitchener name change is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so. | |||||||||
![]() | This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on June 29, 2021. | |||||||||
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![]() | A
fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's
Main Page in the "
Did you know?" column on
February 25, 2004. The text of the entry was: Did you know ...that in
1916, Berlin, Ontario
changed its name to
Kitchener due to
World War I-era anti-German sentiment? |
![]() | This article is written in Canadian English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, centre, travelled, realize, analyze) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus. |
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Amazing how few Kitchenerites know the full history of their own city. The original name was The Eby Settlement. Which later became Eby Towne. Because the many German speaking settlers in the town and general area the name was again changed, this time to Berlin, on the recommendation of Bishop Benjamin Eby. The Eby's, like most original immigrants to the area, were Pennsylvannia Dutch, however, the Dutch part of the name was really a mispronounciation of Pennsylvania Duetch. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.64.235.113 ( talk) 04:19, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
Excellent article! It was featured on the Main Page today, if you hadn't noticed. I've been working on some of the local-area articles, but this is well-researched and a great story to boot. Bravo.
Radagast 22:01, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)
I second that. Always wondered what the story behind the name was. DJ Clayworth 22:03, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Fun page! Thanks. ;Bear 21:48, 2004 Mar 29 (UTC)
Significant parts of this seem to be taken from James Bow's piece (the last external link). Doesn't this violate copyright? Pha telegrapher 02:34, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
Berlin was not the original name for this town. It was known as Sandhill before the name of Berlin was chosen for the settlement. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.110.227.11 ( talk) 21:41, 23 April 2009 (UTC)
How come 346 votes out of 892 were enough to change the name? ( 892 - 346 = 546) Or were there a sugnificant number of invalid or spoiled ballot papers, ie over 200 (so that the vote to retain Berlin was less than 346) Hugo999 ( talk) 14:44, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
There are discrepancies across sources regarding the June 1916 vote totals. If you add up the valid votes most historians provide, it generally comes to 729. Add that to the invalid vote tally of 163 and you end up with 892 total votes. The thing is, most historians write there were 1,055 total votes.
I presume this is what happened: an early historian (maybe Barbara Wilson, 1977) made an arithmetic error by accidentally adding the invalid votes (163) twice (729 + 163 = 892 while 729 + 163 + 163 = 1,055). Later historians cite Wilson but don't correct the error, allowing it to persist through time.
Here are the numbers provided by different sources. If they do not include a figure I just write "?" in its place.
Choice | Wilson (1977) | Moyer (1979) | English & McLaughlin (1983) | McKegney (1991) | Hayes (1997) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kitchener | 346 | 346 | 346 | 346 | 346 |
Brock | 335 | 335 | 335 | 335 | ? |
Adanac | 23 | 23 | 23 | 23 | ? |
Benton | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | ? |
Corona | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | ? |
Keowana | 3 | 163 [ sic | 3 | 3 | ? |
Invalid/blank votes | 163 | "Many" | 163 | 163 | 163 |
Total | 1,055 | ? | 1,055 | 892 | 1,055 |
Registered voters | ? | ? | ? | 4,897 | ? |
Source | [1] | [2] | [3] | [4] | [5] |
In Barbara Wilson's book of original sources, the July 1916 petitioners write the following:
11. The result of this breach of faith, as well as of all the unfairness of the promoters since the outset of the movement, was the insignificant vote of the citizens on the new name, only 729 in an electorate after deducting repeaters of some 4500. ... [6]
The 729 caught my eye since it seems the more likely total for valid votes after looking at the above data. Tkbrett (✉) 20:55, 16 March 2021 (UTC)
References
It seems to me that perhaps adding a See Also section with a wikilink to Swastika, Ontario might be appropriate here? Yes, the town was named for Sanskrit symbol before use by the Nazis. During WWII, the province attempted to rename the town to "Winston", but the town replaced the Winston sign with a Swastika sign and a message "To hell with Hitler, we came up with our name first." I just updated the Swastika, Ontario article so that it discusses the temporary name. Normally, I would just make this change, but because this article is on today's DYK front page it seems better to discuss this. Cxbrx ( talk) 00:31, 29 June 2021 (UTC)
In this context, "Berlin to Kitchener" is a compound adjective, modifying the compound noun "name change" and a compound adjective usually requires hyphens, or some similar character, between its parts (consider a "blue-green shade" or a "twice-told tale"). Thus, it seems that the standard typography of the title of this article would be "Berlin-to-Kitchener name change" or something similar. catsmoke ( talk) 04:48, 1 July 2021 (UTC)
It's a pity not all the unsuccessful proposed names mentioned in the text have explanations provided in the footnotes. I think some should be in reliable sources. I quote unreliable sources from the net in grey and offer speculation in pink:
Name | Origin/meaning/significance |
---|---|
Brock | Isaac Brock, a British Army officer from the War of 1812.[85] |
Kitchener | the recently deceased British Army officer Horatio Herbert Kitchener. |
Adanac | "Adanac" being "Canada" spelled backwards |
Bercana | "Bercana" being a portmanteau of "Berlin" and "Canada". |
Hydro City | D. B. Detweiler, a local promoter of hydroelectricity, suggested "Hydro City" |
Renoma | "which means famous in Esperanto" |
Agnoleo | "name of locally-ground flour" |
Benton | Main street of the city; "Named after Constable Benton who lived during the 1840's in a pretty little cottage at the western end of the present (1970) Charles Street"] |
Corona | "Crown" in Latin, i.e. loyalty to the British monarchy? |
Keowana | an indigenous word? There's a Kiowana Beach in Meaford, Ontario |
Huronto | portmanteau of Huron and Toronto? |
Dunard | Surname? portmanteau? [ Irish Dún Ard? |
jnestorius( talk) 17:58, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
A report in the Berlin News Record wrote that the names became "the joke of the country".
![]() | Berlin-to-Kitchener name change is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so. | |||||||||
![]() | This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on June 29, 2021. | |||||||||
| ||||||||||
![]() | A
fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's
Main Page in the "
Did you know?" column on
February 25, 2004. The text of the entry was: Did you know ...that in
1916, Berlin, Ontario
changed its name to
Kitchener due to
World War I-era anti-German sentiment? |
![]() | This article is written in Canadian English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, centre, travelled, realize, analyze) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus. |
![]() | This article is rated FA-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Amazing how few Kitchenerites know the full history of their own city. The original name was The Eby Settlement. Which later became Eby Towne. Because the many German speaking settlers in the town and general area the name was again changed, this time to Berlin, on the recommendation of Bishop Benjamin Eby. The Eby's, like most original immigrants to the area, were Pennsylvannia Dutch, however, the Dutch part of the name was really a mispronounciation of Pennsylvania Duetch. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.64.235.113 ( talk) 04:19, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
Excellent article! It was featured on the Main Page today, if you hadn't noticed. I've been working on some of the local-area articles, but this is well-researched and a great story to boot. Bravo.
Radagast 22:01, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)
I second that. Always wondered what the story behind the name was. DJ Clayworth 22:03, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Fun page! Thanks. ;Bear 21:48, 2004 Mar 29 (UTC)
Significant parts of this seem to be taken from James Bow's piece (the last external link). Doesn't this violate copyright? Pha telegrapher 02:34, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
Berlin was not the original name for this town. It was known as Sandhill before the name of Berlin was chosen for the settlement. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.110.227.11 ( talk) 21:41, 23 April 2009 (UTC)
How come 346 votes out of 892 were enough to change the name? ( 892 - 346 = 546) Or were there a sugnificant number of invalid or spoiled ballot papers, ie over 200 (so that the vote to retain Berlin was less than 346) Hugo999 ( talk) 14:44, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
There are discrepancies across sources regarding the June 1916 vote totals. If you add up the valid votes most historians provide, it generally comes to 729. Add that to the invalid vote tally of 163 and you end up with 892 total votes. The thing is, most historians write there were 1,055 total votes.
I presume this is what happened: an early historian (maybe Barbara Wilson, 1977) made an arithmetic error by accidentally adding the invalid votes (163) twice (729 + 163 = 892 while 729 + 163 + 163 = 1,055). Later historians cite Wilson but don't correct the error, allowing it to persist through time.
Here are the numbers provided by different sources. If they do not include a figure I just write "?" in its place.
Choice | Wilson (1977) | Moyer (1979) | English & McLaughlin (1983) | McKegney (1991) | Hayes (1997) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kitchener | 346 | 346 | 346 | 346 | 346 |
Brock | 335 | 335 | 335 | 335 | ? |
Adanac | 23 | 23 | 23 | 23 | ? |
Benton | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | ? |
Corona | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | ? |
Keowana | 3 | 163 [ sic | 3 | 3 | ? |
Invalid/blank votes | 163 | "Many" | 163 | 163 | 163 |
Total | 1,055 | ? | 1,055 | 892 | 1,055 |
Registered voters | ? | ? | ? | 4,897 | ? |
Source | [1] | [2] | [3] | [4] | [5] |
In Barbara Wilson's book of original sources, the July 1916 petitioners write the following:
11. The result of this breach of faith, as well as of all the unfairness of the promoters since the outset of the movement, was the insignificant vote of the citizens on the new name, only 729 in an electorate after deducting repeaters of some 4500. ... [6]
The 729 caught my eye since it seems the more likely total for valid votes after looking at the above data. Tkbrett (✉) 20:55, 16 March 2021 (UTC)
References
It seems to me that perhaps adding a See Also section with a wikilink to Swastika, Ontario might be appropriate here? Yes, the town was named for Sanskrit symbol before use by the Nazis. During WWII, the province attempted to rename the town to "Winston", but the town replaced the Winston sign with a Swastika sign and a message "To hell with Hitler, we came up with our name first." I just updated the Swastika, Ontario article so that it discusses the temporary name. Normally, I would just make this change, but because this article is on today's DYK front page it seems better to discuss this. Cxbrx ( talk) 00:31, 29 June 2021 (UTC)
In this context, "Berlin to Kitchener" is a compound adjective, modifying the compound noun "name change" and a compound adjective usually requires hyphens, or some similar character, between its parts (consider a "blue-green shade" or a "twice-told tale"). Thus, it seems that the standard typography of the title of this article would be "Berlin-to-Kitchener name change" or something similar. catsmoke ( talk) 04:48, 1 July 2021 (UTC)
It's a pity not all the unsuccessful proposed names mentioned in the text have explanations provided in the footnotes. I think some should be in reliable sources. I quote unreliable sources from the net in grey and offer speculation in pink:
Name | Origin/meaning/significance |
---|---|
Brock | Isaac Brock, a British Army officer from the War of 1812.[85] |
Kitchener | the recently deceased British Army officer Horatio Herbert Kitchener. |
Adanac | "Adanac" being "Canada" spelled backwards |
Bercana | "Bercana" being a portmanteau of "Berlin" and "Canada". |
Hydro City | D. B. Detweiler, a local promoter of hydroelectricity, suggested "Hydro City" |
Renoma | "which means famous in Esperanto" |
Agnoleo | "name of locally-ground flour" |
Benton | Main street of the city; "Named after Constable Benton who lived during the 1840's in a pretty little cottage at the western end of the present (1970) Charles Street"] |
Corona | "Crown" in Latin, i.e. loyalty to the British monarchy? |
Keowana | an indigenous word? There's a Kiowana Beach in Meaford, Ontario |
Huronto | portmanteau of Huron and Toronto? |
Dunard | Surname? portmanteau? [ Irish Dún Ard? |
jnestorius( talk) 17:58, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
A report in the Berlin News Record wrote that the names became "the joke of the country".