i love that! and i somehow don't mid with the translation of places' name into more pronounceable equivalents.
like, in my instance, i'm from Damascus. the one in middle east, not the many ones in the States. Damascus in arabic formal is Dimashq, but none of our neighbours, or neighbours one state over, of Semitic tongue, nor kurd, nor turkmen, nor indo-european, nor anything call us Dimashq. Damascus is referred as Cham/Shem/Sham-Sharif. Damascus is so official and impersonal. at least to us, those who hail from Cham. Also, historically, people from Cham were people from all the levant, but "recently", like 60 years or so, it's interchangeable for Syrians. so one can be "Shammi" (surname meaning from Damascus/Levant) without being born in proper Dimashq.
again, i say, i don't mind how names are transliterated, i know it's a whole science by itself, i just find it fascinating.