An exonym is a
name used to refer to a
place or
people, by people
outside the location or group instead of the name used by those who live there. Good examples are
Japan which is referred to in Japanese as
Nihon or
Nippon, or
Germany, locally known as
Deutschland. "Exonym" comes from
Greek roots "ex-" (
out) and "-onym" (
word,
name). Sometimes exonyms come from
older names of the region/people in question, or alterations of the local name to fit the
phonetic patterns of a different
language. Other times, the name of a people for their
neighbors becomes the name that is widely used (such as the ancient
Mesopotamian nation known as
Sumer, which was so called by the nearby
Akkadians. The Sumerian name for themselves was "Kanga" or "Kienga").
When doing research, exonyms can cause problems. If you search online or look in indexes for an exonym, the results will be biased toward the views of people who use that particular name, or the time when that exonym was in wide use, and local or current views can be left out. The use of an exonym in speech can mark the user as an outsider or even make them seem prejudiced against the locals; one site referred to them as possible markers of linguistic chauvinism.
Sources:
http://wordsmith.org/awad/archives/0503
http://www.bartleby.com/61/95/E0279550.html
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entries/95/e0279550.html
http://www.ifag.de/kartographie/Stagn/Exonyme/VorwortENG.htm
http://www.fact-index.com/s/su/sumer.html