A common question about toponyms concerns their origin. We can identify at least five common sources for toponyms.
First, we can look to the migration history of a place and the people who reside there. Immigrants bring their culture with them, and place names reflect these patterns of relocation diffusion. Names like New England and Berlin (Wisconsin among others) recall the homeland. But colonists from Britain and other places probably even more often simply appropriated place names from the indigenous people they met in their new homeland. Many U.S. toponyms are American Indian words, including Ohio, Oklahoma, Michigan, and the names of over 20 other U.S. states.
A second source of place names can be found in the values and aspirations of residents. Some values are religious (San Francisco, California and Jerusalem, Maryland), some are classical (numerous towns named Troy, Athens, or Rome in the U.S.), and some reflect respect for honored historical figures (both Washington and Martin Luther King lend their names to many entities in many U.S. states and other countries).
Third, names often celebrate specific positive or negative events that have occurred somewhere. Eureka in California and Lucky Boy Pass in Nevada celebrate success at gold and silver prospecting, respectively. Death Valley in California comes from the desperate experience of a group of “49ers” headed to the California gold fields in 1849-1850.
Fourth, names are often designed to capture accurately the physical character of a place. The Grand Canyon is certainly grand, Thousand Oaks in California had well over a thousand oak trees (and still does), Portage (many states have such a town) describes a place where canoes were carried between water bodies, Minneapolis has several large lakes and rivers (Dakota for water combined with Greek for city), and Glitter Gulch in Las Vegas definitely sparkles with electric lights.
Finally, a fifth source of place names is again an attempt to capture the physical character of a place, but in this case, inaccurately or deceptively. Perhaps sarcastically or cynically, several names have been attached to places as a form of black humor or perhaps intentionally to mislead. Everyone is familiar with industrial parks and housing developments given names like Green Meadows or Flor Vista Park, although no meadows or flowers are evident. One of the most famous examples in geography comes from the Norseman Erik the Red, who reputedly named Iceland and Greenland in the 10th century to repel future visitors from the first place, a relatively balmy emerald jewel, and attract them to the second, a relatively cold and barren land.
Leave a Reply