Place Names

Abstract

The study of place names or toponyms ( topos : place and onomia : name) has been a long research tradition among historical and cultural geographers. Despite their deceptively simple appearance, place names are heavily loaded conceptual pivots that encompass a vast history of cultural meanings, social relationships, linguistic moorings, onomastic recognition, economic signals, cardinal signs, landscape changes, and political reflections. Place name analysis is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary exercise involving archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, folklorists, sociologists, poets, and cartographers. Given their complex history/prehistory, the origins of place names require painstaking research involving linguistics skills, historical interests, and serendipity. This article draws attention to the varied reflections of place names in mythologies, cartographic representations, languages, national voices, political deliberations, and historical documents. As place names are ongoing exercises, this study reflects on the processes of toponymics both historically and currently. The signatories of place names demonstrate power relationships between the colonial and colonized, postcolonial nationalistic sentiments and changing political relationships. The density of street and place names in cities is testimony to the human desire for making landscapes legible, imageable, and orderly for easy navigation. In turn place names become effective bonds between people and places evoking nostalgic reflections and memoirs of personal experiences.