Why there isn't a single foreign city that is called with its original name in Hungary?
Kolozsvár, Lipcse, Bécs, Fokváros, Peking. Each is the Hungarian name of a city located abroad. They have in common that they are not called that anywhere else in the world, only here. However, the explanation for this is different in each case.
The thing is clear about the city names of the parts of the country that were torn off in Trianon. These were originally Hungarian, and later had their own names in both official languages of the Monarchy (Pozsony - Pressburg, Kolozsvár - Klausenburg).
Then there are city names that were born during the language reform. When writers, poets or scientists who were increasingly self-conscious about their Hungarianness gave new names not only to objects instead of German or other foreign words, but also to cities and landscapes. This is how, for example, Lipcse was created instead of Leipzig. Because it's more Hungarian, isn't it? Or Dresden instead of Drezda. But there were also exaggerations. Istókhalma, which was born to replace Stockholm, and Kappanhágó, proposed instead of Copenhagen, soon faded from the public consciousness and the common language.
But there are also cities whose Hungarian names are completely obscure. Such is Vienna. The Austrian capital is called Wien in German and Vienna in English, and one of these versions is native to most languages. Not so here. Where “Bécs” comes from – the Hungarian version of Vienna - is disputed. It may come from the Slavic word oven, referring to the former lime-burning ovens. But according to experts, it could also be of Avar origin - in this case, it would supposedly mean a guarding place.
It also happened that the Hungarian name was created by mirror translation. For example, Fokváros in South Africa, which is called Kaapstadt in Afrikaans and Cape Town in English. But this solution does not only occur in the case of city names, just think of the Rocky Mountains in North America or the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Africa.
Then there are names taken from foreign spelling. Beijing, for example, is somehow pronounced by the Chinese as Pingjin, and Cairo as al-Khaira in Arabic. Here it was clearly simplified, the name became easier for the Hungarian language and ears. But there are also old names, perhaps also from the time of language reform, which suggest an atmosphere, a historical atmosphere, with their Hungarian form completely different from the original or from other languages of the world. Such a geographical name is Cantonese in China, which is approximately Guangzhou in Chinese and Guangzhou in English.