Geographic Names in Geography

Abstract

Geographic Names in Geography WILLIAM G. LOY Professor, Department of Geography University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403 Presidential address delivered to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, San Diego, California, September 30, 1988. Once,from eastern ocean to western ocean, the land stretched away without names. Nameless headlands split the surf; nameless lakes reflected nameless mountains; and nameless rivers flowed through nameless valleys into nameless bays. George Stewart, Names on the Land JL HEREIS NOBETTERWAYTOBEGIN a review ofgeographic name studies than with the opening paragraph of the classic book on placenaming by George R. Stewartpublished in 1945. Names on the Land has inspired a generation of research on the process of placenaming (Harder 1976, p.vii). In the United States ofAmerica there are some 3.5 million names on the land, according to an estimate by George R. Stewart (Stewart 1970, p. ix). This geographical name density of approximately one persquaremile is relativelylow, andthe age ofthenames isrelatively young. In my opinion, the placenames ofthis country, and indeed of 8 ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS the world, constitute a fascinating and important field of study in geography. Whatcanbe more geographical than geographic names? Before launching into the main portion of my paper I need to define six terms. The terms are: geographical name,1 toponym, toponomy, onomastics, etymology, and placename. For most ofthe definitions I am indebted to Marcel Aurousseau, the Secretary ofthe Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use from 1936 to 1955, who published the book The Rendering of Geographical Names in 1957. "A geographical name is the proper name, orgeographicalexpression, bywhichaparticulargeographical entity is known" (Aurousseau 1957, p. 4). Aurousseau equates toponyms with placenames (Aurousseau 1957, p. 3) and he defines toponymy as "the studyofplace-names" (Aurousseau 1957, p. 3). To define onomastics Aurousseau writes, "the scientific study ofnames as names, that is, ofthe human habit ofnaming things, is the science of onomastics..." (Aurousseau 1957, p. 1). The word onomastics is from the Greek word onomastikos meaning "pertaining to names." Etymology isdefinedas "theoriginanddevelopmentofaword, affix, phrase, etc.; thetracing ofawordorotherformbackas faraspossible in its own language and to its source in contemporary or earlier languages" (Webster's 1984, p. 482). In practice, onomastics and toponymy often involve the searching out of the earlier forms of geographic names to determine the etymology of the name. The term placename2 is curiously absent from standard glossaries ofgeographical terms (Stamp 1961, p. 365, Clark 1985, p. 472). Donald Orth, theExecutive SecretaryoftheDomesticNames Branch of the United States Geological Survey from 1975 to 1988, defines placenames as"conventional soundandwordsymbolsusedinspoken languagetorefertoparticularplaces, features, andareasonornearthe earth's surface" (Orth 1984a, p. 131). His summary oftheirmeaning andutility is alsowell stated. "Theyrepresentaprimarygeographical reference system used by people throughout the world. Their use illustrates a unique human ability to abstract and classify geographical entities in the spatial continuum perceived as reality and then YEARBOOK · VOLUME 51 · 19899 identify specific items in that classification with proper names for unique reference purposes" (Orth 1984a, p. 131). To summarize these definitions, a geographical name is the proper name of a geographical entity. Common usage equates the terms toponym, geographical name, sadplacename (Orth 1987, p. 36). Onomastics is the broad field ofnames study while toponymy is the narrower study ofplacenames. Developingname histories is etymology . One who studies names ofall sorts is an onomastician while a researcher who specializes in geographical names, placenames, or toponyms is a toponymist. Scope and History of the Field of Geographic Name Studies The field ofgeographic name studies is broad and complex. All humans name geographicfeatures, andtheprocess has been going on throughouttheworldduring allofhumantime. We areverbalpeople, we need to encode the landscape and assign names to places in order tothinkaboutthem. Weconceptualizethelandscape ashills, valleys, streams, lakes, and also towns, counties, cities, and nations, and we name each ofthese. The study ofthese mental and cultural processes presents a major challenge. Once again we lookto George R. Stewart forleadership. Thirty years afterpublishingNames on the Landhe publishedNames on the G/o&eattheageofeighty(Stewart 1975). Thedistillationofalifetime of thought on the subject of placenaming, it is a remarkable book. Stewart surveyed the processes ofplacenaming from the practices of ancient Egyptians to modern times, and successfully distilled some general principles (Stewart 1975, pp. 397-400). I will not be so ambitious...