At what point in history did Bombay become Mumbai?
There was no city on the seven islands that make up today’s Mumbai, before the 18th century. The nearest city was Thane. The seven islands held many villages with different names, some of which survive in the names of areas in the city: Girgaum and Worli to name just two. The British established a port settlement near the harbour in the late 17th century. This eventually grew and engulfed all the other villages. The name Bombay may have got attached to the British settlement as an English corruption of the Portuguese description of the harbour, “Bom Bahia”, meaning good bay. The name was changed by an act of the Indian parliament in 1997 to Mumbai. The reason for this change was that in two of the local languages, Marathi and Gujarati, the city has long been called Mumbai. It is believed that the name comes from the name of one of the old Koli goddesses, Mumba Devi, a temple to whom now stands in Bhuleshwar.
