Sergey Nikitin, in his book "The Land of Names" (NLO, 2020) on historical onomastics in Russia, relates, for example, that Paul I, soon after his accession, renamed Yekaterinoslav, Feodosia and Sevastopol, all named under Catherine the Great, to…
Novorossiysk is, in principle, clear enough: the new name was tied to that of the whole region, Russia's southern Russian acquisitions. But Kafa and Akhtiar? The former is found as early as Afanasy Nikitin; it was what the Genoese called Feodosia, and after them the Turks who seized it.
Akhtiar, which replaced the "majestic city" of Sevastopol, is the Turkic name of a Tatar hamlet in that locality. Simferopol Paul resolved to rename Ak-Mechet.
The formal explanation, leaving aside emotional arguments such as dislike of his mother and a wish to avenge his father's murder on her memory, was this: the Greek Project was no longer relevant, and so Turkisms could be restored to the map, since Russia was not at war with the Ottoman Empire.
However, a number of scholars note that the old names Yekaterinoslav, Sevastopol and Feodosia were not merely restored by Alexander I but had never ceased to exist, since Paul never signed the decree on renaming; from which it follows that the change of names could be regarded as a court intrigue far removed from any real geographical objects.
