Talk:Cephalonia

Notable People

The Notable People section includes several people who have never lived on the island. For some reason, someone added several people whose only connection to the island is through ancestry, including a few with very distant Cephalonian ancestry; and this author was even explicit with several of these, stating the person is "of Cephalonian origin". This section should only list people that have actually lived on the island at some point in their lives; not people of "Cephalonian origin" who have never lived there. Skyduster (talk) 07:17, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

I went ahead and cleaned up the Notable People section, removing the following people:

• Panait Istrati. According to his wikipedia biography, it appears he lived in Greece for about a year, but it does not clarify where in Greece he lived. His only connection to the island appears to be that his father was from there.
• Grigory Ivanovich Rossolimo. Born in Ukraine, according to his Wikipedia biography, and "of Greek origin" (even though the only Greek ancestor discussed is his grandfather who came from Cephalonia). There is no indication he ever lived in Cephalonia himself, let alone Greece.
• Charles Denis Bourbaki. There is no indication in his wikipedia biography that he ever lived in Cephalonia, let alone Greece. His only connection to the island is that his father was from there.
• Nicolas Rossolimo. There is absolutely no indication in his wikipedia biography that he ever lived in Cephalonia, let alone Greece. His wikipedia entry states that he was born in Ukraine, then lived in France, then the United States. His only connection to the island is ancestry through his father's side.
• Archbishop Anastasios of Albania. There is absolutely no indication in his wikipedia biography that he ever lived in Cephalonia. He was born in Piraeus, and Cephalonia is not mentioned anywhere in his wikipedia entry, aside from the fact that his family has "Cephalonian origin".
• Andreas Gerasimos Michalitsianos. His wikipedia biography states that he was born in Egypt to Greek parents; the family moved to the United States when he was only 2 years of age, where he spent the rest of his life. There is no mention of Cephalonia in his wikipedia entry, aside from a robotic telescope on the island named after him.
• John Varvatos. According to his wikipedia ancestry, he was born in the United States, and there is no mention of him ever having lived in any other country. His only connection to the island, according to his wikipedia entry, is that the Varvatos family "are originally from Cephalonia".
• Aleka Papariga. Born in Athens, according to her wikipedia entry, there is no indication that she ever lived in Cephalonia. Her only connection to the island is that her parents are of "Cephalonian origin".
• Norman St John-Stevas, Baron St John of Fawsley. Born in the United Kingdom, where he spent his entire life aside from possible brief stays in the United States; his wikipedia biography mentions degrees from Yale, but doesn't clarify if they're honorary. There is no indication he ever lived in Cephalonia, let alone Greece. His father had a Greek-sounding name, but the entry doesn't clarify where his father was from, which shouldn't matter anyways.
• Andreas Loverdos. Born in Patras, his wikipedia biography also mentions Thessaloniki, Athens, and Brussels. There is no indication he ever lived on the island.
• Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou. Her wikipedia biography is too short to determine where she has lived, but because the original author explicitly clarified that she is "of Cephalonian origin", that's an indication that she never actually lived there.
• Pavlos Geroulanos. His wikipedia biography mentions Athens, Boston, and a town in rural Massachusetts. The entry is relatively short, but the original author explicitly clarified that he is "of Cephalonian origin", an indication that he never actually lived there.
• Sofia Bekatorou. Her wikipedia biography mentions Athens, but is too short to determine if she has lived elsewhere. Because the original author explicitly clarified that she is "of Cephalonian origin", that's an indication that she never actually lived there.

I left the following "questionable" persons in the list:

• Ioannis Metaxas. His wikipedia biography does not mention him ever having lived in Cephalonia, but having been born in Ithaca, he could have very well lived in Cephalonia at some point in his life.
• Nikos Kavvadias. Born in Russia to Cephalonian parents, according to his wikipedia biography, and spent most his life in Athens. His wikipedia entry briefly states that his family returned to Cephalonia for a few years while he was a child before moving to Athens. Clearly he lived on the island for a brief time as a child, so he remains on the list.
• Anna Pollatou. Her wikipedia biography is incomplete, and does not even mention her place of birth. Because the original author did not describe her as a person "of Cephalonian origin", I took that as an indication that she actually is from the island.

After my having cleaned up this section, if anyone finds that any of the deleted persons noted above have in fact lived in Cephalonia at some point in their lives, please add them again. If they have not lived on the island, they do not belong in the list.

Thanks Skyduster (talk) 08:19, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Original work?

Is this original work? -- Zoe

Appears to be, I've googled a few phrases and this is the only page that came up. Paul Weaver 18:31 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Corn

This page links to the disambiguation page Corn, but I'm not sure which sense is intended. If you know, please fix it. Thank you. — Pekinensis 19:23, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

I have changed it to Cereal. — Pekinensis 23:02, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Kefallonia name

I think this article should be named "Kefallonia". That's the official transliteration. Reactions at Talk:Prefectures of Greece please. Markussep 13:26, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

Yes - who is responsible for the name?

Recent changes

I found this article to be very badly structured, and remodelled it using the Corfu article. The major problem was the confusion whether it was just about the island of Kefalonia or about the Kefalonia and Ithaka Prefecture. There was also information in this article relating to Ithaka although that island has its on article. Therefore, I made the bold move of removing the prefecture infobox, replacing with a Greek island infobox, and setting up a new article for the prefecture. This will lead to less confusion in the future.

The page looks a bid muddled now, as all the photos are crammed into the top sections. I will try to modify this, as well as the terrible standard of English in the article, later.--Damac 11:12, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Land area of island

I'm not sure what the area of the island is, but it cannot be the same as that of Kefalonia and Ithaca Prefecture, since Ithaca and other islands (such as Arkoudi, Atokos, and Oxeia) are excluded. Backspace 17:25, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

is it not the right one 781 km² ? according to this ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_by_area#Islands_500_km.C2.B2.E2.80.931.2C000_km.C2.B2 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.4.4.124 (talk) 09:06, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

PHOTO is of...?

The topmost photo says it is a "panoramic view of Assos"...?? As far as I can tell, Assos is an Aegean location in Turkey... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.230.240.135 (talk) 18:29, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Assos is/was a small fishing village on the coast of Kefalonia. I have personally taken a very similar photo to the one in the article, probably from almost the same spot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.31.158.114 (talk) 16:58, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

New theory holds that Kefalonia was ancient Ithaca

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/ithaca.html?c=y&page=2

Yet this Wiki article does not yet reflect this credible source.Ryoung122 03:53, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Population figures discrepancy

There is a discrepancy btween the mid-20th century population figure of approximately 10,000 given near the start of the page and the number of people fleeing the 1953 earthquake - said to be as many as 100,000 of the island's 125,000 population. There is clearly something amiss here...

Having viewed a contemporary Pathe news report which refers to 10,000 homeless I am inclined to believe the lower figure.

Ioannis Metaxas was not native from Kefalonia, he was native from Ithaka. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.25.180.170 (talk) 21:34, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

Name

According to google books:

• "Kefalonia island" -Llc 26
• "Kefallonia island" -Llc 14
• "Cephalonia island" -Llc 202
• "Kefallinia island" -Llc 47
• "island of Kefalonia" -Llc 94
• "island of Kefallonia" -Llc 26
• "island of Cephalonia" -Llc 386
• "island of Kefallinia" -Llc 69

-- Takabeg (talk) 22:16, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

What would be more worthwhile is to look at how more recent titles refer to the island. Cephalonia is an historical spelling, which is why it produces so many hits on Google Books. My experience as someone who lives in Greece and works as a journalist at an English-language paper here is that the most common spelling nowadays here and on Kefalonia is, surprise, surprise, Kefalonia! But don't let the natives decide on what the island should be called. What would they know?--Damac (talk) 16:03, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

My opinion is not yet firmly made on the matter, but I just want to point to you that English names that differ from local use are something quite common, and I don't think it is wrong. Last time I checked, it was still correct English to speak about Greece, Athens, Corfu and India rather than Ellas, Athina, Kerkyra and Bharat. As for on the spot use, in my experience it is often more handy, when there are several possible names for a place, to use the one most similar in sound to the local language when you are geographically near the place. That said, exonyms sometimes fall out of use: Marseilles and Lyons have lost their final S for good it seems. Place Clichy (talk) 18:51, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

• • • Only on Wikipedia, not in the real world. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 22:37, 30 August 2011 (UTC)
• Even in 2008, Books Ngram Viewer (Kefalonia,Cephalonia). -- Takabeg (talk) 16:16, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
• I agree that Kefalonia is the proper spelling in the year 2012. As was pointed out by someone else, Google Book searches are not relevant, because they are heavily skewed in favour of classical spellings that have fallen out of use. "Kefalonia" is used almost universally within Greece, and also on foreign websites for Kefalonia tourism. Also, the argument about us still writing "Athens, Corfu, and India" misses the point. We still write those things because they are commonly used by everyone. Kefalonia is commonly used by everyone, hence it is the spelling to use on Wikipedia. I'd make the change myself except I don't know how to change an entire article. Someone please do so.Nojamus (talk) 02:25, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

I would suggest a change to "Kefalonia", as it is the most common name today, the others are more historic.--2003:E8:DBC8:FC9A:DDEE:8888:84AF:7210 (talk) 08:55, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: page moved per discussion. Although Wikipedia has been consistent for some time in using the spelling "Kefalonia", it appears from the discussion that editors are recognizing "Cephalonia" as the most common spelling used in reliable English-language sources.

Following this move, I've changed a lot of other instances of the other spelling, but I'm certain there are ones that I've missed. If any other articles need to move, someone please let me know, and we can take care of them without having to go through Requested Moves again. - GTBacchus^(talk) 00:47, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

---

Kefalonia → Cephalonia -Relisting. -GTBacchus^(talk) 21:55, 28 August 2011 (UTC) per WP:COMMONNAME & WP:USEENGLISH. Cephalonia is not only historical name, but also today's common name of this island in English language like Cologne, Munich, Prague, Turin, Milan, Athens etc. See discussion above. -- Takabeg (talk) 09:11, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Strong oppose. When I first got involved with Wikipedia, in 2005, I noticed that there was a plethora of spellings for this island: Kefalonia, Kefallonia, Kephalonia, Kephallonia, Cephalonia, Cefalonia, Kefallinia, Kephallinia etc etc existing. After a lot of work and much effort, which included many renaming proposals etc, these variations where whittled down to Kefalonia, which is now widely used across Wikipedia in articles, categories etc.

After all that work, we now have haphazard and ill-conceived proposals to revert all of this.

There are a number of reasons why, I feel, Kefalonia is the best transliteration.

a. Kefalonia is the closest and most faithful transliteration of the modern Greek name of the island, Κεφαλονιά. It also uses a K, and not the C, which does not exist in Greek.

b. It is also a spelling widely used by Greeks and others on Kefalonia and elsewhere.

c. It also reflects the pronunciation of the island much better than Cephalonia, a word that can be very easily mispronounced by the uninformed.

The case of Kefalonia is unlike most of the examples you mention. Kefalonia/Cephalonia are simply transcriptions of the same Greek word. This is not the case for Athina/Athens, Κöln/Cologne, München/Munich, Praha/Prague are not. Nor is it similar to other examples that you haven't mentioned, like Zakynthos/Zante, Kriti/Crete, Kerkyra/Corfu.

In other words - what can be achieved by this renaming? We are substituting one transliteration for another, even though both are pronounced in the same way. Cephalonia is archaic, but I accept that it is still in use. But it's to Kefalonia that tourists book their holidays, it's Kefalonia on the ferry schedules, it's Kefalonia on most of the island's websites, and it's generally Kefalonia on road signs.--Damac (talk) 17:29, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Support It is a case of translation vs. transcription. The exonym Cephalonia exists, is well in use and understandable, it should be preferred to the transcription of the local name. Kefalonia is used in travel guides, ferry routes and road signs because it is more handy to use the transcripted local name when interfering with locals, we should use English elsewhere. Note that it goes the other way too: most Greeks will call the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris the "Ηλύσια Πεδία" (Ilysia Pedia, the exact translation) but travel guides will sometimes transform it into something like "ΣΑΝΖ ΕΛΥΖΕ". Place Clichy (talk) 10:35, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

• Comment - I've notified WikiProject Greece and WikiProject Islands about this discussion, and I'm relisting it for another week. I'd like to see input from more Wikipedians before closing this one. -GTBacchus^(talk) 21:55, 28 August 2011 (UTC)
• Support We are writing in English, not either variety of Modern Greek. Takabeg supplies an ngram comparing Cephalonia and Kefalonia; which shows Cephalonia as ten times as common. It is, like Corinth, the conventional English spelling; Damac uses Corinth on his own user page, so I must suppose he finds it more communicative than Korinthos; so here. To burn a straw man: Usage of Cephalonia is not confined to classical and Homeric discussions; one of the first hits is this beach guide, which also uses Lefkas and Meganissi. I do not understand the argument that Athens is not a transcription of Ἀθῆναι; it's not letter for letter, but that's because it's a transcription though French, which also transcribes Αἰνείας as Énée; we anglophones follow the Romans in transcribing that name as Aeneas. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 22:51, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

Support. Cephalonia is the overwhelmingly prevalent English name, required by WP:COMMONNAME. On Google Books it's 12:1. In the JSTOR repository of scholarly articles, it's 23:1. Wareh (talk) 01:28, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

• Support. The evidence above is overwhelming that Cephalonia is the name most recognizable to readers... and consistent with usage in reliable English-language sources (quoting WP:AT of course). Andrewa (talk) 00:37, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Oppose. As I have said on the talk page, Google Book searches are IRRELEVANT when they are so heavily skewed by historical spellings. The point on Wikipedia is to use CURRENT COMMON SPELLINGS, and the most common spelling currently is Kefalonia. This is absolutely positively true. Look up Kefalonia's English-language tourism websites, for starters. Visit the island and see how local businesses write the name on signs. Look at the spelling that European airlines like Thomson and EasyJet use to sell their tickets. Kefalonia is the spelling. I really don't understand the circular arguments offered above. Given that - as the first poster has explained - this issue was settled back in 2005, I'm not sure why it's rearing its ugly head again.Nojamus (talk) 02:34, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Google books shows also results from the past. Kefalonia ist the most common today. E.g search to book a hotel. You will never find "Cephalonia" always Kefalonia.--Mantzavinata (talk) 12:07, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Island area

Cephalonia is an island, and also a regional unit. When you indicate the size, it is worth mention that the island has a size of 773 sqkm. if you talk about the regional unit, then it includes several of the echinades islands, and also some offshore islands near Cephalonia itself. in Total, it has 786 sqkm. the point is, we must decide what are the statistics we want to use: the regional unit, or the single island. thanks, Ofir

Because all the information is on the official greek islands website. We just have to decide to which parameter are we considering: a single island, or a regional unit (10 islands). Thats why. HonorTheIsland (talk) 15:32, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

Can't we give both, e.g.: "773 km² (island)<br />786 km² (regional unit)" ? Furius (talk) 19:21, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

Table of Islands

This table of island is utterly unreliable. It is plain nonsense to assign a capital and "other cities" to uninhabited island. With no people living there, these simple can not exist. The Banner talk 19:23, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

I agree that "capital" and "other cities" is a poor choice of term. I wonder if it might be useful instead to have a list of the Echinades which belong to Cephalonia (the island group seems to be split between the Cephalonian municipality of Pylaros and the separate region of Ithaca), in the "Administration" section. Furius (talk) 20:09, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

Still, if there are no people on the island, you can not have a human settlement whatsoever. The Banner talk 20:58, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

It is just completely unreliable. The island Echinades point now to a group of islands. While its capital Petalas points to an island. The Banner talk 21:02, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

Yeah. I think the original editor called Petalas the capital because it is the largest island in the group. Furius (talk) 22:52, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

It is not the first time that she publishes unsourced unreliable lists of islands. The Banner talk 23:10, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

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