Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
explains that some of the most interesting toponyms
are
manufactured
, such as Truth or Consequences,
New Mexico, which voted to change its name to honor
a 1950s radio game show. Stewart's fi nal category of
toponyms is
shift names
. Shift names include relocated
names, examples of relocation diffusion and typically
found in migrant communities (Lancaster, England to
Lancaster, Pennsylvania).
Knowing Stewart's ten categories of toponyms at
the very least helps us understand that a story lies behind
every toponym we encounter in our travels. The stories of
toponyms quite often have their roots in migration, move-
ment, and interaction among people. When languages
diffuse through migration, so too do toponyms. Studying
the toponyms in a place can tell us much about the histori-
cal migration of peoples. George Stewart's classic book
on toponyms reveals many clusters of migrants and cor-
responding toponyms. Often the toponyms remain long
after the migrants moved on. Clusters of Welsh toponyms
in Pennsylvania, French toponyms in Louisiana, and
Dutch toponyms in Michigan reveal migration fl ows and
also can provide insight into language change and evolu-
tion of dialects.
WHAT ROLE DOES LANGUAGE PLAY
IN MAKING PLACES?
The cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan has studied the
role and function of language in the shaping of places. He
researched the way people use language as a tool to give
perceptual meaning to areas on the Earth's surface, large
and small. Each
place
has a unique location and consti-
tutes a refl ection of human activities, ideas, and tangible,
durable creations. Tuan argued that by simply naming
a place, people in effect call that place into being, and
thereby impart a certain character to it.
Geographers call place-names
toponyms.
Such
names often refer to the social processes going on in a par-
ticular area, and these may determine whether a toponym is
passed down or changed, how the people will interpret the
history of a place, and how the people will see a place. Tuan
contrasts the examples of “Mount Prospect” and “Mount
Misery” to help us understand that a name alone can color
the character of a place and even the experiences of people
in a place. If you planned to travel to “Mount Prospect,”
your expectations and even your experiences might well be
quite different than a trip to “Mount Misery.”
Toponyms and Globalization
Brazil provides an interesting case study of migration
fl ows and toponyms. Most Brazilian toponyms are
Portuguese, refl ecting the Portuguese colonization of
the land. Amid the Portuguese toponyms sits a cluster
of German toponyms in the southern state of Santa
Catarina. The map of the state is marked by the place-
naming activities of German immigrants. For example,
the German word for fl ower is “Blume,” and several
last names in German begin with “Blum.” The German
immigrants had a fondness for the tropical fl owers
they saw in Brazil: southern Brazil is therefore dotted
with towns named Blumenau, Blumberg, Blumenhof,
Blumenort, Blumenthal, and Blumenstein. Brazilian
toponyms also reveal the enormous fl ow of forced
migration from West Africa to Brazil during the slave
trade. The Brazilian State of Bahia has a number of top-
onyms that originated in West Africa, especially Benin
and Nigeria.
The toponyms we see on a map depend in large part
on who produced the map. Some embattled locales have
more than one name at the same time. Argentineans refer
to a small cluster (archipelago) of islands off the southeast
coast of South America as the Malvinas, but the British
call the same cluster of islands the Falkland Islands. In
1982, Argentina invaded the Malvinas, but the British
forces fought back, and the islands remain under British
control. British, American, and other allies call and map
the islands as the Falklands, but Argentineans continue to
The Ten Toponyms
A toponym can give us a quick glimpse into the history
of a place. Simply by knowing who named the place
and how the name was chosen helps us understand the
uniqueness of a place. In his book,
Names on the Land:
A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States
(1982), English professor George Stewart recognized
that certain themes dominate American toponyms.
Stewart developed a classifi cation scheme focused on ten
basic types of place-names, including:
descriptive
(Rocky
Mountains),
commendatory
(Paradise Valley, Arizona),
and
possession
(Johnson City, Texas) (Table 6.2). Stewart
TABLE 6.2
Type of Toponym
Example
Descriptive
Rocky Mountains
Associative
Mill Valley, California
Commemorative
San Francisco, California
Commendatory
Paradise Valley, Arizona
Incidents
Battle Creek, Michigan
Possession
Johnson City, Texas
Folk
Plains, Georgia
Manufactured
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Mistakes
Lasker, North Carolina
Shift
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
