Some geographical names can be proof of all different language communities that once lived in a region.

For example, the Banat is an area in the Balkans (at present subdivided by Hungary, Romania and Serbia) that has been depopulated in the 17th century due to the warfare between Turkey and the Habsburg monarchy.

The Habsburgs tried to populate the area again by promising tax exemption in exchange for military services. From many areas in the Balkan people arrived, and were settled in villages made up solely of Germans, Serbs, Rumanians, Albanians, Bulgarians, Italians, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, etc. They all bestowed names on these villages in their own language, and many of these names have survived.

Below is a map of the resettlement of the Banat region in 1743. The red circles refer to Romanian villages, the blue to Serbian, the yellow to German, the green to Bulgarian and the beige circles to Italian villages.

Source: Wikipedia / Author: Colinspancev - Creative_Commons Licenses

Click here or on map for enlargement of the above map.