"Washington, DC" in latin

Question

Is there a more-or-less commonly accepted translation of "Washington, DC" (i.e., the city, but I would assume the same word would work for the state) in contemporary-latin? I'll happily use DC for districtus columbiae for the "DC" part, but I haven't been able to find much for the "Washington" part.

Searching hereabouts yielded Vasitonia, but that does not seem to be very common.

(Background: the kids are making a movie as a school project on the two Capitols. The German and English parts are easier than the Latin ones... but also less interesting.)

Latin Wikipedia goes with Vasintonia. – Cairnarvon Mar 03 '21 at 15:55 — Cairnarvon, Mar 03 '21 at 15:55
Related: Quomodo “Bloomington” reddere? – Asteroides Mar 03 '21 at 20:19 — Asteroides, Mar 03 '21 at 20:19

Rafael · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-03T23:34:48.420

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An official source for modern Latin names of cities is Catholic dioceses. In ecclesiastical Latin, the demonym of Washington is Vashingtonensis (with sh, which is weird, and ng), thus the city should be

Vashingtonia.

As per Latin Wikipedia (not to be treated too seriously as a source, but the sources cited sometimes can), it may as well be Washingtonium, Vasingtonia (without h), Vasingtonium, and apparently Vasintonia (without g). DC is in fact quoted as Districtus Columbiae.

The linked Vasitonia seems to be a typo to me. That —and, well, Latin too— could explain the small number of results in your search.

Update: below is an excerpt from Acta Apostolicae Sedis, from June 2006, when Donald Wuerl was named archbishop of Washington, DC as Metropolitana Ecclesia Vashingtonensis (with sh and ng).

enter image description here

edited Mar 03 '21 at 23:34

answered Mar 03 '21 at 16:02

Rafael

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Do you have an official source that that is the Latin name of the archdiocese? FWIW, searching Latin documents on vatican.va, I found several different forms: Washingtonia, Vashingtonia, Vasintonia, -ae, and Vasingtonia. The latter seems to be part of a formula with "degenti," i.e. "residing in Washington." – brianpck Mar 03 '21 at 16:41
@brianpck: good point. Here is a letter from John Paul II to Archiepiscopo Vashingtonensi. – Stephan Kolassa Mar 03 '21 at 19:38
@brianpck good question. I just trusted CH. Although not official, I consider it a serious source that's kept very up to date – Rafael Mar 03 '21 at 22:47
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@brianpck fixed! I also looked for the current bishop's appointment, but the source I found only had the AAS texts up to 2018 – Rafael Mar 03 '21 at 23:37

"Washington, DC" in latin

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