In the aftermath of the Queen’s passing, demand that Queensland once again be called “Kingsland”

Despite the fact that Queensland was recognized by that name long before Elizabeth II was born, some Australians have proposed changing Queensland’s name to “Kingsland” in the aftermath of her passing.

Following Her Majesty’s demise on Friday morning AEST, jokes and sometimes genuine uncertainty over the name of the state have emerged on social media.

Shouldn’t Queensland now be called Kingsland? is the headline of a lengthy conversation on the social media platform Reddit.

Additionally, certain top attorneys are now referred to as “Kings Counsel” rather than “Queens Counsel,” and the Queen’s Birthday national holiday has been renamed the King’s Birthday in the aftermath of the Queen’s passing.

There has been a sincere push among some politicians for the names of both Queensland and Victoria to be changed out of respect for Indigenous people, even though Queensland won’t suddenly adopt a new name because the state is named after Queen Victoria, who ruled the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901.

Now-Federal Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe called for the names of Queensland and Victoria to be changed to Indigenous names in 2020, when she was a little known state MP.

‘Everything’s named as a result of invasion of this country, why wouldn’t we negotiate (name changes),’ Ms Thorpe said at the time.

‘Anything that’s named after someone who’s caused harm or murdered people, then I think we should take their name down.’

Niigaan Sinclair, a Native studies professor at the University of Manitoba told CBC: ‘Queen Victoria presided during some of the most brutal and expansive years of colonial history — when land was stolen the most.’

The debate over whether or not to change the name of Queensland has some echoes with the Uluru/Ayers Rock situation.

It was called Uluru in the Pitjantjatjara language a long time before Europeans arrived in Australia.

In 1873, the explorer William Gosse became the first non-Aboriginal person to see it and named it Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, South Australia’s then chief secretary.

In 1993, it was officially renamed Ayers Rock/Uluru, and in 2002 this was reversed to Uluru/Ayers Rock.

Though the name change was opposed at the time, there are now very few people who refer to it as Ayers Rock.

The Republic of Ireland, which gained independence from the UK on December 6, 1922 – originally as the Irish Free State – has a mixed history of royal name changes.

Though the name King’s County in the midlands of Ireland has long since been changed to Offaly, some legal documents still refer to it by its old name to this day.

The next door county, Laois, is still called Queen’s County when the title deeds to land are updated when sold.

In the capital city, Dublin, its main train station, Heuston, was still called Kingsbridge until 1966.

It was renamed after Sean Heuston, who had been executed 50 years earlier for his part in the 1916 attempt to overthrow British rule.

But Dublin still has a medical university called the Royal College of Surgeons, a law college called King’s Inns and a showground venue called the Royal Dublin Society.

America too, has state names called after British royals. The southern state of Georgia was named after King George II, while Virginia was named to honour Queen Elizabeth I, who was known as the ‘Virgin queen’.

The US seems happy enough to maintain its royal state names. It’s very likely Queensland will too.