NICOSIA, Feb. 17 -- 'Nicosia,' the capital of Cyprus, has decided to identify itself as 'Lefkosia' in the Latin script, dropping a 35-year practice of using two names in different scripts, an announcement by the city fathers said Friday. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Municipal Council which said the city will be identified as 'Lefkosia' instead of 'Nicosia' in the Latin script.
An official announcement did not say when the changeover would take effect. The announcement was written on stationery marked 'Nicosia Municipality' in the Latin script, and 'Demos Lefkosia' in the Cyrillic. After independence from Britain in 1960, Cyprus officially began using three languages -- English, Greek and Turkish -- on documents and banknotes. During British rule of the island, the city was called 'Nicosia.' After independence, it remained 'Nicosia' in the Latin script used for English-language documentation, but 'Lefkosia,' in the Cyrillic used for Greek documentation. Documents in Turkish, which uses a modified form of the Latin script, identified the city as 'Lefkos.' The decision to drop the name 'Nicosia,' will leave it with just 'Lefkosia' or 'Lefkos.' However, for the time being the city's name in the Latin script will appear as 'Lefkosia' followed by 'Nicosia,' in brackets, the announcement said. There was no word on the duration when the double-name style would be used, but one official said 'until people (normally reading only the Latin script) get used to the new name.' There is controvery about the origins of the name 'Lefkosia.' One theory is that it comes from the word 'lefkos,' meaning 'white' the official said. Another, more plausible, theory is that the name comes from 'Leucus, ' the son of Ptolemy I of Egypt. 'Originally, the city was called Leucusia, but that gradually changed to Lefkosia,' she said.
