[mardef]

Just want to point out that location names are used for codenames because they cannot be trademarked

Big tech uses them instead of wasting legal time and money having to clear a new name that's temporary or non-public.

Changing the name to Tokio removes this benefit and still leaves it disconnected from its purpose.

[qingcharles]

The name of the city is 東京 -- anything in Latin characters is a rough transliteration. Tokio was the common spelling in European texts until some time last century, and is still used regularly in continental Europe.

see also, e.g. Tokio Hotel

[Dilettante_]

A reference to Tokio Hotel was not on my HN bingo card

[echelon]

This is the first time Tokio Hotel has been mentioned on HN in over ten years.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

That has me thinking of Neutral Milk Hotel. Totally different vibes.

[qingcharles]

Thank you for doing the background work. Wild they've never been mentioned before. And this time, not in relation to their music...

[labster]

Tokio is a different (masculine) name in Japanese, pronounced quite differently. /tokʲio/ vs. /to̞ːkʲo̞ː/.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokio_(given_name)

[j16sdiz]

We are talking about the spelling centuries ago, when the romanisation were less standardised

[buzer]

> location names are used for codenames because they cannot be trademarked

I don't think that's the case. Amazon, Nokia as some counterexamples.