Abstract

Names are where power settles on the map. By centering Peru’s Cusco region, the central zone of Inca governance and Spanish rule, this study investigates where colonial renaming concentrates, and likewise where Indigenous lexicon endured. The study uses a randomized GeoNames corpus, conducting a three‐stage design which moves from landscape‐level contrasts into the interior of settlements. Toponyms were coded as Indigenous, Colonial, or Hybrid and, within settlements, into nine functional domains. The results illustrated that across natural features, Indigenous names are decisively dominant. Surprisingly, colonial tokens were only modestly more visible in inhabited settlements than in nature. Furthermore, administrative seats were found not to be more Hispanicized than ordinary settlements. In fact, Indigenous persistence was found to only be slightly stronger at the loci of governance than in natural features. The final coding stage revealed that Spanish colonial naming is highly selective in the region. Specifically, it clusters extensively in ecclesiastical, civic commemorative, and extractive labels. The everyday “city‐text”, including environmental anchors, village descriptors, and infrastructure names, remains overwhelmingly Quechua. Hybrids, similar to colonial toponyms, are found to be extremely rare. The results show a selective geography of power consisting of symbolic peaks amid an Indigenous plain, a pattern which is further interpreted using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of “linguistic market”, James Scott’s legibility thesis, and existing scholarships from Rose-Redwood et al.. The results, in addition to revising a narrative of blanket erasure, inform a practical decolonization pathway. Specifically, instead of the simple orthographic normalization and interpretive signage that is being employed today, co‐designed renaming in areas where colonial toponyms cluster may better amplify Indigenous continuity initiatives.