Google Translate – Why Many Cities Are Identified as London

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I've noticed with many city names, when I translate a phrase from Spanish to English using Google Translate, it often thinks the city name should be translated to "London." Why London of all places?

A couple examples… Each of the following translate the same:

Voy a guadalajara.
Voy a guanajuato.

Becomes:

I'm going to london.
I'm going to london.

If I properly capitalize the city names, the translation is more correct:

Voy a Guadalajara.
Voy a Guanajuato.

Becomes:

I am going to Guadalajara.
I'm going to Guanajuato.

When I translate:

I'm going to London.

I get:

Me voy a Londres.

And there aren't any other options for "Londres," so this curiosity appears to only happen in one direction.

Best Answer

A few months ago, this issue was on TV news and it was also a trending topic in Turkiye. Turkish to English translations of some famous Turkish people were shocking. Here are some examples:

Turkish          English
-----------      --------------
Hande Yener      Marilyn Manson
Ferhat Göçer     Justin Timberlake
Mahmut Tuncer    Jennifer Lopez
Demir Demirkan   Iron Maiden
Edip Akbayram    Slipknot
...              ...

They said it was because of some mischievous collaborators who like abusing Google's translating system through Google Translate API. This got to be the same case for your London example.

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