In Mexico plenty of places and cities have native names, but in South America, particularly Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, it seems native names are much rarer, why is this? | AskHistorians Archive Observer

In Mexico plenty of places and cities have native names, but in South America, particularly Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, it seems native names are much rarer, why is this?

by Frigorifico

I'm basing this simply on my own perception, perhaps there are as many native names in South America as in Mexico, but given what I've seen it seems native names are extremely rare in some South American countries

sabisari

This is not true, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela all have lots cities/provinces that get their names from indigenous languages. The majority of Colombian provinces have names that originated from an indigenous language, and the capital city is literally an indigenous word, Bogotá (Bakata). Ditto for Quito which is the Ecuadorian capital.