I should say I am great stickler for accuracy in names. We should always use the correct names of places: Mumbai not *Bombay, Co^te d'Ivoire not *Ivory Coast, Solomon Islands nor *the Solomon Islands, and so on.
In the case where there exists a distinct English name, that is the correct name when speaking English, e.g. Geneva, which is not the French or Italian or German name. (Hmm... what is the Italian? Ginevra? Or am I mixed up?) There's a correct name for it in French when speaking in French, ditto in German. Each of the national names is a long-standing and authentic word in the respective language. No one is a "corruption" of any other, or a "bad" or "ignorant" or "sloppy" form.
This is not a plea for "traditional" names. Names can be changed. Co^te d'Ivoire used to be Elfenbeinku"ste, Ivory Coast, Costa de Marfil etc. in various languages, then they changed the name in English from Ivory Coast to Co^te d'Ivoire, in Spanish from Costa de Marfil to Co^te d'Ivoire, and so on. (They were sick of not knowing where to sit at international conferences.)
The English name of Mumbai used to be Bombay, but now it's changed. Bombay is now as much an anachronism as Batavia.
