An
interesting and often effective way to learn about the history of an area is to
perform a toponymic study of it. A toponym is defined as the name of a
geographical place. Toponymics is the study of the origins of place names.
Each
name has a meaning and a story behind it. The origins of the names of
communities, districts, parks, streets, buildings, and schools can reveal who
or what in the past was important or significant to people then. A place name is
almost like a survivor form the past, outliving the changes in language,
people, and technology. It can record no only sad stories but stories of hope,
happiness, success, and failure. From the larges city to the smallest grove of
trees, a name marks human contact with a geographical place, recognizing a spot
on the globe as remarkable or distinctive, separating it from the rest of the
world. Scholars have tried to classify names into different categories based on
diverse origins. Possible origins for the name of your community may fall into
one of the following categories of origins; your search for the origins of your
community's name can begin with a checklist of the possible sources of origin,
summarized in the chart:
Names
drives from a prominent feature on the landscape, such as seas, coastlines,
rivers, lakes, mountains, or valley, or other natural features such as animals,
birds, flowers or minerals.
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Long Island, New York is actually a very long island reaching out to the
Atlantic.
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Miramar is the name of several places in California deriving from the Spanish
words "mira" and "mar." They mean sea view, a common name
for oceanfront places in Spanish-speaking countries.
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Frostproof, Florida received its name after escaping two severe freezes in the
late nineteenth century because its location in a hilly area between two lakes
protected the citrus crop.
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Chile, South America, although shaped like the vegetable we call a
"chile" or a "chili", derives its name from an indigenous
word "tchilli," meaning snow in reference to the snow-capped Andes
mountains that extend along the eastern coast of the country.
Famous
Personalities
Another
popular category is names that commemorate people who lived or founded the community.
Regional, national, and international heroes as well as literary, fictional,
and mythical characters are also immortalized in the names of places on the
map.
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Fonda, New York, originally a Native American community, saw the arrival of the
Dutch in the eighteenth century and was named 100 years later for one of the
original Dutch settlers.
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Twain, California was not the home of the famous Mark Twain, but the place
where he had mining interests, and was named by one of his friends a few months
after his death.
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Dante, South Dakota may have been named after the town site owner's favorite
author, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Others believe the name was chosen
based on the town's association with Hell.
- Frazer River, British Columbia,
Canada, bears the name of Simon Frazer, an agent of the Hudson Bay Company, who
was the first European to cross the Rocky Mountains (1806). A trading post,
Fort Frazer is also named after him.
A
local industry is often significant enough to result in the use of its name.
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Argentina in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Argentina, South America, share a
common toponymic origin, based on the Latin word for silver,
"argentums," but are named in reference to quite different local
characteristics. Nineteenth-century silver mines, no longer in use, provided
the name of Argentina, Newfoundland. South American Argentina, has a similar
origin. The main river, the Rio de la Plata, was poetically named "River
of Silver" for the large number of silver ornaments worn by some of the
indigenous population in the area.
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Chapman, Kansas takes it name from a local creek, which, in turn, was named for
a nearby store since "chapman" means merchant or trader.
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Mill Valley, California, (previously known as Bunscombe Mills for the founder's
hometown in North Carolina), retains its name from the first gristmill in the
county, which was built in 1856.
Names
referring to the hometowns of settlers are common across the New World. As
settlers from Europe swept across the continents founding settlements, they
gave the landscapes they discovered and the towns they founded names
reminiscent of the lands they left behind.
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Boston takes its name from the English town of the same name in Lincolnshire.
The word is a contraction of an earlier name "Bostolphoston," the
town of Bostolph, named for the monastery of St. Bostolph that was established
in Lincolnshire in the seventh century.
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The name of New York City dates back to 1664, when it was changed from New
Amsterdam as control of the territory passed from the Dutch to the English. The
English sovereign, King Charles II, gave the territory to his brother James,
Duke of York, for whom the new English lands were named.
The
languages spoken in a community may change over time, but the original place
names may remain. In the United States, many of the lands that were Spanish
before the Spanish-American War retain Spanish names. Other places keep Native
American tribal names and words.
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Cheyenne, Oklahoma was the site of the Cheyenne village of Chief Black Kettle, attacked
by Custer in 1868.
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Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, is derived from the words
"talua," meaning village, and "assi," meaning old. In the
local indigenous language, together they mean "old town."
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"Florida" is derived from Spanish. Some think the origin of this
state's name is from the Spanish expression "Pascua Florida"
(literally the words "Easter" and "flower") meaning
"Easter Sunday"Ñbecause the European explorer Juan Ponce de Leon is
believed to have discovered the territory on Easter, 1513. Others believe
"Florida" simply refers to "flowery" because the discoverer
was struck by its abundance of flowers.