The Tamil Nadu government has renamed several places in the state to make it sound more familiar with their original Tamil names.
Though the decision to change names and spellings was taken two years ago by the state government, the gazette notification for the same was dated April 1,2020.
For instance, textile town Coimbatore will be spelt as Koyampuththoor, the famed biryani land Dindigul is now Thindukkal, Dharmapuri Parliamentary constituency will now be spelt Tharumapuri, Tuticorin as Thooththukkudi, Vellore as Veeloor, Tiruvarur as Thiruvaroor and many more like this.
The Tamil Nadu government had looked up 1,018 names and revised the spellings for many of them, though some remain unchanged. The notification said that the new spellings will be in effect in official documents hereafter. Those in existing ones will not be disturbed.
Other notable new spellings are:
Chintadripet to Chinthadharipettai
Ambattur to Ambaththoor
Tondiyarpet to Thandaiyaarpettai
Saidapet to Saithaappettai
Guindy Park to Gindi Poonga
Gudalur to Koodaloor
Mylapore to Mayilaappoor
Left-out?
Interestingly the government has not changed the name or spelling for Srivilliputtur, though the district administration had suggested it be called and spelt as Thiruvillipuththur.
In Tamil Nadu, politicians prefer the Tamil word 'Thiru' instead of the Sanskrit "Shri/Sri".
Strangely, the government has retained the name and spelling for Gingee though the town is known as Senji and the district administration too recommended the same.
Two years ago, the government had announced its plan to change the name and spelling of the towns/cities so that they phonetically sound like their names in Tamil.