Names of counties, areas, countries, use the original name or modern name?

Question

Over the years some countries or places have changed name.  Which is acceptable?

eg Salisbury, Rhodesia or Harare, Zimbabwe (person lived in Rhodesia before it became Zimbabwe.

Or, a town is listed in England, but over time, converts to Wales. back to England and finally the last time remains part of Wales.  People during historic times are listed as being in Monmouthshire, England.  More modern times 20C Monmouthshire is Wales.

Ceylon or Sri Lanka?

How do we determine which one to list?

Comments

Generally Wikipedia will have a history of most places and you can consult Wikipedia to see what places have been named at different times.

Answer 1

"use their conventions instead of ours."

Applied to locations, this means using place names in native languages and using the names that people at the time used, even if they now no longer exist.

Help page on locations

Comments

Thank you, I did do a search before I posted my question.

I will continue using name locations though outdated, with a small piece within the biology/sources.

Some of our counties over the years included/excluded some cities/towns then 50 years later entirely different.

 

Many thanks.