Use historically accurate names or current names?

Question

Am I wrong in using historically accurate names followed by (now called XXX)?

Examples the USA came into existence with the ratification of the U.S. Constitution on June 21, 1788 (9 of the 13 United States of America had ratified).  So it is incorrect to say something like 1700 -- Massachusetts, USA.  There was no USA in 1700.  In 1691, English King William & Queen Mary created the "Province of Massachusetts Bay" which included what had been Massachusetts Bay Colony & Plymouth Colony up to 1686 when English King James II created the "Dominion of New England" from what is now CT, NH, NJ, NY, MA, and RI.

Another example, South Carolina and North Carolina were created in 1712 from what had been the Province of Carolina from 1663 to 1710 & from 1609 to 1663 part of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia

From 1581 to 1795 there was the Dutch Republic or Republic of the Seven United Netherlands which includes what is now the Netherlands and Belgium.

I know this is a lot of history, but that's what genealogy is, right?

Comments

West Virginia is one of two American states formed during the American Civil War (1861–1865), along with Nevada, and is the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state. It was originally part of the BritishVirginia Colony (1607–1776) and the western part of the state of Virginia (1776–1863), whose population became sharply divided over the issue of secession from the Union and in the separation from Virginia, formalized by admittance to the Union as a new state in 1863. West Virginia was one of the Civil War Border states. 

 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_West_Virginia

Answer 1

We are supposed to use the convention of the day; you are correct. http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Name_Fields#Use_their_conventions_instead_of_ours

This creates the unfortunate side-effect of rendering map links incorrectly though.

Answer 2

Historically accurate names, yes. The question, however, is whether it is desirable or OK to add "(now known as XXX)" in a location field. My recollection is that that would be a great thing to do in the narrative, but was not sanctioned in the location fields.