A sign on U.S. 41 was replaced multiple times because Fort Myers and Cyclery were misspelled. (Photo: Melissa Montoya)

Is it that hard? Apparently so. The Southwest Florida city’s name is often misspelled. Most recently, an egregious misspelling has made its way onto a directional sign for the Fort Myers Cyclery – or the Ft. Meyer’s Cyclery – on U.S. 41.

By Friday morning, Fort Myers Cyclery owner Diane Holm said the sign was finally correct.  “The first sign had the incorrect name,” Holm said. “The second sign had it spelled incorrectly. The third sign has it spelled incorrectly.”  And so on and so forth, she said.  Holm said she wasn’t sure if this was the fourth or fifth sign.

“It’s been fun,” Holm said. “We had Fort Myer up there for a long time, no ‘s’ at all.”

Click through to read the whole article, including a quote from the ANS’s own Cleve Evens:

History aside, when it comes to spelling names, people are going to spell it with what they’re familiar with, said Cleveland Evans, a past president and current member of the executive board of the American Name Society.

As for the errant apostrophe, Evans said: “It’s a common mistake, but it’s somebody that doesn’t remember how to use it correctly and should not be employed by your state government as a sign maker, obviously.”

Politician Emilbek Kaptagayev wants the city of Bishkek to be known as Manas, a warrior whose adventures make up a massive epic poem dated back to at least the 18th century. The former presidential chief of staff posted that this would prevent “any temptations that might emerge after the passage of the years” to rename the capital after potentially-divisive politicians.

The impetus for this was the decision of neighbouring Kazakhstan to change the name of its capital city from Astana to Nur-Sultan, in honour of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country’s first president who stepped down last week after nearly 30 years at the helm.

After a gunman opened fire on two separate Christchurch mosques, leaving 50 dead and dozens injured, Crusaders chief executive says that the organisation is listening to feedback over a change of name for one of New Zealand’s most decorated sporting sides. Minister for Sport and Recreation Grant Robertson says that conversations around a potential name change for the Crusaders is appropriate.

A reference to the medieval Crusades from Christians against Muslims between 1095 and 1492, the name ‘Crusaders’ could be taken as highly offensive and inappropriate. As calls for the Crusaders to consider a re-brand continue to grow, the inevitable question is beginning to linger. To what? Any ideas?

Kazakhstan’s second post-independence president wanted to rename the country’s capital after its first president, who served for 30 years.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was sworn in as Kazakhstan’s president on Wednesday, a day after longtime leader Nursultan Nazarbayev announced his surprise resignation. Tokayev, who had served as senate speaker, was the designated interim replacement according to the Kazakh constitution. He is expected to serve the rest of Nazarbayev’s term until elections in April 2020.

In his inaugural speech, Tokayev praised Nazarbayev as “an outstanding reformer” and called for renaming the capital city, Astana, “Nursultan.”

The Royal House of Mandela has thrown its weight behind renaming Cape Town International Airport after Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. At Madikizela-Mandela’s funeral in Soweto last year, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (a far-left South African political party) Julius Malema made the first call for the name change, having said that if the African National Congress (governing party) was serious about honouring maWinnie and her legacy, it should name the Mother City’s airport after her.

Political parties disagreed in Parliament over the name change of the airport, with the ANC saying all names of Struggle heroes and heroines needed to be considered. The Airports Company South Africa has given the public until June 6, 2019 to submit names for the change. Once the public process is complete, a report of conclusions and recommendations will be compiled. Other names put forward include Struggle icons Albertina Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Chris Hani, Robert Sobukwe and Alex La Guma.