Toponymy

Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of toponyms (names of places, also known as place names and geographical names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. Toponym is the general term for the name of any geographical feature, and the full scope of the term also includes names of all cosmographical features.

In a more specific sense, the term toponymy refers to an inventory of toponyms, while the discipline researching such names is referred to as toponymics or toponomastics. Toponymy is a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds. A person who studies toponymy is called toponymist. Since then, toponym has come to replace the term place-name in professional discourse among geographers. In English, a composite toponym may consist of a specific and a generic (such as Tweed River, River Tweed, or River Road) or less commonly a generic with a definite article and no specific (such as the Bend or the Dalles).

History

thumb|[[Krakus Mound commemorating Krak, Lechitic founder of Kraków; the ending -ów means possession in Polish]]

Probably the first toponymists were the storytellers and poets who explained the origin of specific place names as part of their tales; sometimes place-names served as the basis for their etiological legends. The process of folk etymology usually took over, whereby a false meaning was extracted from a name based on its structure or sounds. Thus, for example, the toponym of Hellespont was explained by Greek poets as being named after Helle, daughter of Athamas, who drowned there as she crossed it with her brother Phrixus on a flying golden ram. The name, however, is probably derived from an older language, such as Pelasgian, which was unknown to those who explained its origin. In his Names on the Globe, George R. Stewart theorizes that Hellespont originally meant something like 'narrow Pontus' or 'entrance to Pontus', Pontus being an ancient name for the region around the Black Sea, and by extension, for the sea itself.

Especially in the 19th century, the age of exploration, a lot of toponyms got a different name because of national pride. Thus the famous German cartographer Petermann thought that the naming of newly discovered physical features was one of the privileges of a map editor, especially because he was fed up with forever encountering toponyms such as Victoria, Wellington, Smith, Jones, and so on. He writes: "While constructing the new map to specify the detailed topographical portrayal and after consulting with and authorization of messr. Theodor von Heuglin and count Karl Graf von Waldburg-Zeil I have entered 118 names in the map: partly they are the names derived from celebrities of arctic explorations and discoveries, arctic travellers anyway as well as excellent friends, patrons, and participants of different nationalities in the newest northpolar expeditions, partly eminent German travellers in Africa, Australia, America ...".

Toponyms may have different names through time, due to changes and developments in languages, political developments and border adjustments to name but a few. More recently many postcolonial countries revert to their own nomenclature for toponyms that have been named by colonial powers.

Toponyms not only illustrate ethnic settlement patterns, but they can also help identify discrete periods of immigration.

Toponymists are responsible for the active preservation of their region's culture through its toponymy. They typically ensure the ongoing development of a geographical names database and associated publications, for recording and disseminating authoritative hard-copy and digital toponymic data. This data may be disseminated in a wide variety of formats, including hard-copy topographic maps as well as digital formats such as geographic information systems, Google Maps, or thesauri like the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names.

In the same vein, writers Pinchevski and Torgovnik (2002) consider the naming of streets as a political act in which holders of the legitimate monopoly to name aspire to engrave their ideological views in the social space. Similarly, the revisionist practice of

renaming streets, as both the celebration of triumph and the repudiation of the old regime is another issue of toponymy. Also, in the context of Slavic nationalism, the name of Saint Petersburg was changed to the more Slavic sounding Petrograd from 1914 to 1924, then to Leningrad following the death of Vladimir Lenin and back to Saint-Peterburg in 1991 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. After 1830, in the wake of the Greek War of Independence and the establishment of an independent Greek state, Turkish, Slavic and Italian place names were Hellenized, as an effort of "toponymic cleansing." This nationalization of place names can also manifest itself in a postcolonial context.

In Canada, there have been initiatives in recent years "to restore traditional names to reflect the Indigenous culture wherever possible". Indigenous mapping is a process that can include restoring place names by Indigenous communities themselves.

Frictions sometimes arise between countries because of toponymy, as illustrated by the Macedonia naming dispute in which Greece has claimed the name Macedonia, the Sea of Japan naming dispute between Japan and Korea, as well as the Persian Gulf naming dispute. On 20 September 1996 a note on the internet reflected a query by a Canadian surfer, who said as follows: 'One producer of maps labeled the water body

"Persian Gulf" on a 1977 map of Iran, and then "Arabian Gulf", also in 1977, in a map which focused on the Gulf States. I would gather that this is an indication of the "politics of maps", but I would be interested to know if this was done to avoid upsetting users of the Iran map and users of the map showing Arab Gulf States'. This symbolizes a further aspect of the topic, namely the spilling over of the problem from the purely political to the economic sphere.

Geographic names boards

A geographic names board is an official body established by a government to decide on official names for geographical areas and features.

Most countries have such a body, which is commonly (but not always) known by this name. In some countries (especially those organised on a federal basis), subdivisions such as individual states or provinces have individual boards.

Individual geographical names boards include:

Antarctic Place-names Commission
Commission nationale de toponymie (National toponymy commission - France)
Geographical Names Board of Canada
Geographical Names Board of New South Wales
New Zealand Geographic Board
South African Geographical Names Council
United States Board on Geographic Names

Notable toponymists

Marcel Aurousseau (1891–1983), Australian geographer, geologist, war hero, historian and translator
Andrew Breeze (born 1954), English linguist
William Bright (1928–2006), American linguist
Richard Coates (born 1949), English linguist
Joan Coromines (1905–1997), etymologist, dialectologist, toponymist
Albert Dauzat (1877–1955), French linguist
Eilert Ekwall (1877–1964, Sweden)
Henry Gannett (1846–1914), American geographer
Margaret Gelling (1924–2009), English toponymist
Michel Grosclaude (1926–2002), philosopher and French linguist
Ernest Nègre (1907–2000), French toponymist
W. F. H. Nicolaisen (1927–2016), folklorist, linguist, medievalist
Oliver Padel (born 1948), English medievalist and toponymist
Robert L. Ramsay (1880–1953), American linguist
Adrian Room (1933–2010), British toponymist and onomastician
Charles Rostaing (1904–1999), French linguist
Henry Schoolcraft (1793–1864), American geographer, geologist and ethnologist
Walter Skeat (1835–1912), British philologist
Petar Skok (1881–1956), Croatian etymologist and toponymist
Albert Hugh Smith (1903–1967), scholar of Old English and Scandinavian languages
Frank Stenton (1880–1967), historian of Anglo-Saxon England
George R. Stewart (1895–1980), American historian, toponymist and novelist
Jan Paul Strid (1947–2018), Swedish toponymist
Isaac Taylor (1829–1901), philologist, toponymist and Anglican canon of York
James Hammond Trumbull (1821–1897), American scholar and philologist
William J. Watson (1865–1948), Scottish scholar

History

Geographic names boards

Notable toponymists

See also

Toponymy

Hydronymy

Regional toponymy

Other

References

Sources

Further reading

History

Geographic names boards

Notable toponymists

See also

Related concepts

Toponymy

Hydronymy

Regional toponymy

Other

References

Sources

Further reading