Central America and the Spanish exonym, 'Ciudad'.

The Central American nations - Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama - the names are as old as their origin. But more than that, there is an interesting story behind the capital cities of these nations. The present-day capitals of these countries are as follows: 

1. Guatemala (Guatemala City)
2. Belize (Belmopan)
3. Nicaragua (Managua)
4. Honduras (Tegucigalpa)
5. El Salvador (San Salvador)
6. Costa Rica (San José)
7. Panama (Panama City)

The anecdote on these capital cities that is interesting is the fact that almost all these countries share a common name with their capital cities or a separate settlement. This applies true even if Mexico is added, although its majorly considered part of North American geography. In any case, Central America has always been part of North America, except for Panama till the time it was part of Gran Colombia (till 1903). But like any other nation/nation-state, these seven countries also had different capitals at one point in time. 

In the early 19th century, Belize (or Balize) had its capital at Balize itself. The capital was destroyed in a natural disaster of 1961, hence a new settlement of Belmopan was changed in 1970. Before San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador was Cojutepeque that moved in 1854 because of another natural devastation in the city. Honduras has a cape on its northern coast, called Cape Honduras but the capital in the 19th century was shifted to Teguzigalpa (Tegucigalpa) from Comayagua in 1880. Nicaragua shifted its capital from Leon (and Granada) to Managua in 1852. Although this wasn't because of any natural disaster, an earthquake did occur in 1970 halting the capital's growth for a while. Costa Rica, Panama and Guatemala have become exceptions for having their capitals fixed at the same place (San Jose, Panama City and Guatemala City respectively) since the early days. 

Before the formation of separate entities, these Central American nations shuffled between various political conglomerations. At times, these territories were incorporated in the bigger Mexico (in 1821-1822), other times had multiple renaming (Belize/Balize - British Honduras - Belize). An intermediate state called the United Provinces of Central America (1823-1841) existed that clubbed together these territories (except Panama) and had its capital between Guatemala City and San Salvador. The politics of these countries changed and altered at the same time, all at once. Just within a couple of early decades of the 19th century, the Spanish hegemony over these nations ceased to exist, an intermediate federation was formed and disintegrated into independent factions. This pattern was also seen in Mexico when in the 1820s itself its politics changed from being part of the Spanish Empire (as New Spain) to an independent Mexico. As a matter of fact, the modern capital of Mexico has always been Mexico City, another common pattern among these Latin American countries (country and capital sharing the same name). 

The territory of New Spain or Nueva España expanded gradually over the period of time in the 16th century. At one point in time, the frontiers of this massive Spanish territory stretched from what today are the American states of California, Arizona, Colorado covering the entire stretch of Central America. Hence, the Spanish names of these establishments differ from the English exonyms given to them. And so, Ciudad de Guatemala becomes Guatemala City, Ciudad de Mexico becomes Mexico City, Ciudad de Panamá for Panama City etc. This is applicable to several other Spanish names in both mainland Spain and the Spanish realm of both the Americas. Some of the interesting examples are: 

• Ciudad Juárez (Juarez City, Mexico)
• Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl (commonly called ass Neza, Mexico)
• Ciudad Apodaca (Apodaca, Mexico)
• Ciudad Nicolás Romero (Nicolás Romero, Mexico)
• Ciudad Bolívar (Bolívar; two cities with the same name in Colombia, and another one in Venezuela)
• Ciudad Cortés (Puerto Cortés, Costa Rica)
• Ciudad Real (Royal City, Spain)
• Ciudad del Este (Eastern City, Paraguay) etc.

In the Spanish realm, the cities are referred to with the holonym Ciudad mostly because of the treatment of its home state as a singular confederation of multiple political entities. Also, to the same Spanish world, names such as Mexico City, Panama City, Guatemala City etc. are nothing but various exonyms; a place name that isn't used by the people who live in that place but that is used by others. The Spanish world also has certain other holonym-exonym combinations, most commonly such as Santiago, Antigua and Trinidad. But unlike Ciudad, the term Santiago has also entered the Spanish world of Africa and Asia, such as Ilha de Santiago, Cape Verde and Santiago, Isabela (in The Philippines). 

A rather uncommon map of North America sketched originally by an American cartographer Samuel Augustus Mitchell (1790-1868) shows a settlement of London placing it in Nicaragua. Its current location is close to a town called Dakura, on the eastern coast of the country. The best guess to this settlement being called London would be that it belonged to a historic political entity called Miskito Coast, misspelt (most probably) by the British as Mosquito coast since the territory was dominated by the British till late 19th century. The usual habit of Englishmen christening settlements they acquire on non-England lands after English cities continued here as well. Another interesting feature marked on the map is the naming of the Federal Republic of Central America as Guatamala instead of its usual spelling Guatemala. This is perhaps because of the existence of the former Kingdom of Guatemala that combined the entire Central American belt and parts of Mexico. Also, the Mexican states are referred to as 'Intendencies', with the Intendency of Merida being a neighbour to this Guatamala. The Intendency of Merida consisted of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, Belize and the northern part of today's Guatemala. 

Below here is a recreated version of the originally mapped Central America in 1831 by Samuel Augustus Mitchell.