You had me until the last one... "Mumbai" isn't the Hindi pronounciation of "Bombay" -- it's a different name. The local authoriities actually renamed the City, because "Bombay" is a Portuguese term and the local ruling Hindu Nationalist Party wanted to replace the colonial name with a new Hindi name that sounded somewhat similar. So they invented "Mumbai."
Everything else you mentioned -- Peking/Beijing, Porto/Puerto Rico, Pakistan and Chile are all about pronounciation/spelling of agreed upon names.
Thanks. I had forgotten about that one. Goes in the category of Burma-to-Myanmar. My bad.
Peking became Beijing in 1979, when a new system of transliteration from Mandarin to English was devised.
The name “Beijing” is supposed to be much closer to how the city’s name is pronounced in Mandarin than is Peking. The name of the city did not change, only the way it is spelled and pronounced in the western world. And this was done, I believe, at the request of the Chinese.
I can remember when “Chile” was pronounced “chili” in this country. Perhaps it’s part of a movement to pronounce names closer to the way natives do, and do away with anglicized pronunciations???
When did Qatar become Cutter?