Place name

“ When two nouns only are compounded into a place-name, the first loses its final letters or last syllable, while the second remains entire. The first is a qualifier of the second and follows it in translation, e. g.—Tecalli from tetl, calli = “house (calli) of stone (tetl) .”
8. In place-names compounded of an adjective and a noun, the adjective precedes, e. g.—Iztacuauhtli from iztac, cuauhtli = “the white (iztac) eagle (cuauhtli) .” ”

“ Now I hope to show some reason for believing that by the use of proper methods, the origin of our place-names may often be determined with a high degree of probability, and even with positive certainty. That the matter is not of the highest importance may be freely admitted; but as false local etymology has in the past been the source of a great deal of historical error, so sound local etymology may sometimes be a valuable help in the discovery of historical truth. ”

“ Also one should readily cede to the fancy that is bred by a beautiful place name. It is true that, as a rule, the most attractive names lead to the least attractive places, but on the way one touches singularity often, and beauty sometimes. ”

“ They should be taught to see in the town common or village green a survival of that primitive institution of land-community upon which town and state are based. They should be taught the meaning of town and family names; how the word 'town' means, primarily, a place hedged in for the purposes of defence; how the picket-fences around home and house-lot are but a survival of the primitive town idea; how home, hamlet, and town live on together in a name like Hampton, or Home-town. They should investigate the most ordinary thing for these are often the most archaic. ”

“ J. C. Tildesley is now permanently invalided is a matter of regret not only to Willenhall, but to a wide circle of readers and admirers outside the township.
p. 179XXX.—Topography.
There is often a wealth of history to be unearthed from place-names. Localities often preserve the names of dead and gone personages, half-forgotten incidents, and matters of past history well worth recalling for their interest. Besides the pleasure to be derived from the right interpretation of place-names and old street names, great interest often centres around the social associations of old inns and taverns. ”

“ A proper noun is a name applied to a particular object, whether person, place, or thing.
It specializes or limits the thing to which it is applied, reducing it to a narrow application. Thus, city is a word applied to any one of its kind; but Chicago names one city, and fixes the attention upon that particular city. King may be applied to any ruler of a kingdom, but Alfred the Great is the name of one king only. ”

“ When I speak of home, I speak of the place where—in default of a better—those I love are gathered together; and if that place were a gypsy’s tent, or a barn, I should call it by the same good name notwithstanding. ”

“ The ley and its sighting points were earlier than homesteads, hamlets, or towns, and as the latter evolved on the tracks, place names naturally bear traces of their origin.
It is no reflection on philologists that, not knowing of the ley, they have made misinterpretations, and have a huge mass of corrections to make. In particular they will find a past neglect in translating place names in the light of traders coming along the road and meeting the buyers at settled points. ”

“ Under no system of nomenclature but that of our fathers could the name of the township have so simply and naturally become the name of the man, and the name of the man have so simply and naturally become the name of the city. ”

“ The Eastern post-position locatives are -it, -et, -at, -ut; the Delaware, -ng, -nk, with connecting vowel -ing, -ink, -ong, -onk, -ung, -unk, etc. The meaning of this class of suffixes is the same; they locate a place or object that is at, in, or on some other place or object, the name of Which is prefixed, as in Delaware Hitgunk, "On or to a tree;" Utenink, "In the town;" Wachtschunk, "On the mountain." In some cases the locative takes the verbal form indicating place or country, Williams wrote "Sachimauónck, a Kingdom or Monarchy." Dr. ”

“ The Geographic Board, in its fourth report, made a belated protest against this excessive duplication. ‘‘The names Elk, Beaver, Cottonwood and Bald,’’ it said, ‘‘are altogether too numerous.’’ Of postoffices alone there are fully a hundred embodying Elk; counting in rivers, lakes, creeks, mountains and valleys, the map of the United States probably shows at least twice as many such names.
A study of American geographical and place names reveals eight general classes, as follows: (a) those embodying personal names, chiefly the surnames of pioneers or of national heroes ”

“ When we find therefore, that the old names of natural objects and localities in a country belong, for the most part, to a particular language, we may conclude with certainty that a people speaking that language formerly occupied the country. Of this the names they have so impressed are as sure a proof as if they had left a distinct record of their existence in words engraven on the rocks. Such old names of places often long outlive both the people that bestowed them, and nearly all the material monuments of their occupancy. ”

“ These single enclosures became the nucleus of a village which, gradually increasing, became a town or city, in the same manner as villages and towns arose around the Celtic duns, raths, and lises. This root, in the names of towns and villages, is more common than any other in Anglo-Saxon topography, being an element in an eighth part of the names of dwelling-places in the south of Great Britain. The greatest number of these names is connected with those of the original proprietors of the places, of which but a few examples can be given here. ”

“ We have under other heads alluded to the carelessness of persons in addressing their letters. To make them legible and complete, give the name of the post-town, and if there be more than one town of that name, or if the post-town is not well known, be careful in giving the name of the county, which in all cases is as essential as that of the State. The number of the house, too, if in a street, is a great assistance. ”

“ Every knoll, hill, mountain, and every peak on a range has a name; and so has every watercourse, dell, and plain. In fact, every feature and portion of the country is so minutely distinguished by appropriate names, that it would take a lifetime to decipher their meaning. It is not the want, but the superabundance of names that misleads travellers, and the terms used are so multifarious that good scholars will at times scarcely know more than the subject of conversation. ”

“ At present the custom is coming in vogue of nailing up on the corners of the streets small boards containing the names of the streets and the numbers of the division or ward, and subdivision or precinct, of the neighbourhood. In many places, especially in the unbuilt or newly surveyed portions, small stakes, marked as above, are driven into the ground, and act as guide-posts. In directing a letter we must write the name of the person, street and number, the ward and precinct, and to avoid all mistake, the ancient name of the neighbourhood. ”

“ In some parts of the country large villages are met with, in each of which there exists but one family name; thus in one district will be found, say, three villages, each containing two or three thousand people, the one of the Horse, the second of the Sheep, and the third of the Ox family name.... ”

“ And now we come to what we may term the second branch of local surnames, that branch which throws a light upon the migratory habits and roving tendencies of our forefathers. So far we have touched upon names implying a fixed residence in a fixed locality. We may now notice that class which by their very formation throw our minds upon that which precedes settlement in a particular spot, viz., removal—that which speaks to us of immigration. Such a name in our mediæval rolls as ‘Peter le Newe,’ or ‘Gilbert le Newcomen,’ or ‘Walter le Neweman,’ declares to us at once its origin. ”

“ Elkins.”
“Really, a very odd affair!” said Miss Allen, of159 Fairchild, Antonia’s college friend. “It makes a social function of the naming of a town!”
“Yes,” said Mr. Elkins, “and it is one of the really enduring things we can do. Long after the memory of every one here is departed, these villages will still bear the names we give them to-day. If there’s any truth in the belief that some people have, that names have an influence for good or evil, the naming of the towns may be important as building the railroad.” ”

“ Nearly all the streets out of the Strand, for instance, are named after the first name, second name, third name, fourth, fifth, and sixth names of some particular noble family; after their relations, connections, or places of residence—Arundel Street, Norfolk Street, Villiers Street, Bedford Street, Southampton Street, and any number of others. ”

“ Foyers; and the other, “the waterfall of the moorish uplands,” which every one understands who walks up to it.
So much for the features of unappropriated nature, stereotyped, as it were, at once and for ever, in the old names of local scenery. But as into a landscape an artist will inoculate his sentiment and symbolise his fancy, so on the face of the earth men are fond to stamp the trace of their habitation and their history. Under this influence the nomenclature of topography becomes at once changed from a picture of natural scenery to a record of human fortunes. ”

“ The Scots retain the use of the word town in its comprehensive Saxon meaning, as a place of habitation. A mansion or a farm house, though solitary, is called the town. A landward town is a dwelling situated in the country. ”

“ Most of the features we have thus noticed, together with a portion of the adjacent shore of the bay, are exhibited in our prefixed illustration; and to the older citizens of our metropolis, as well as to many others of our countrymen, they must, we think, awaken many stirring recollections of the striking changes in the appearance of the scenery in many districts adjacent to the city, as well as in the character of the citizens themselves, which have taken place within the present century. ”

“ The form of the locative in these declensions is like the genitive singular, and its use is limited to names of towns and small islands, domī, at home, and a few other words.
268. Rule. Locative and Locative Ablative. To express the place in which with names of towns and small islands, if they are singular and of the first or second declension, use the locative; otherwise use the locative ablative without a preposition; as,
Here Rōmae, Corinthī, and domī are locatives, being singular and of the first and second declensions respectively. But in
Athēnīs and Pompēiīs are locative ablatives. ”

“ Each office makes its own style.
The word “city” in “Junction City” is put up,—the two words forming the city’s name. Whether to print “New York City” or “New York city” is a moot point,—at present a matter of style. Some insist that as ocean, sea, city, street, etc., are common nouns, they so remain when connected with a proper adjective, and should be put down,—and from this starting-point they have endeavored to frame a general, and at the same time practical, rule for cap­i­tal­iz­ing common nouns, which, when described by proper adjectives, form parts of individual names. ”

“ The pleasant nature of the intelligence thus awakened leads us naturally to lament that, except to those who are born in Celtic districts and speak the Celtic language, the significance of so many of our most common topographical names in the most interesting districts is practically lost ”

“ Nearly all have suffered some mutilation or change of form. In many instances, hardly a trace of true original can be detected in the modern name. Some have been separated from the localities to which they belonged, and assigned to others to which they are etymologically inappropriate. A mountain receives the name of a river; a bay, that of a cape or a peninsula; a tract of land, that of a rock or a waterfall. And so 'Massachusetts' and 'Connecticut' and 'Narragansett' have come to be proper names, as truly as 'Boston' and 'Hartford' are in their cis-Atlantic appropriation. ”

“ The ideas of locality are no longer limited like our view by the trees on each side. The least turn reminds us that we are passing some antre vast, or lateral ridge, occupying a place in the map which thus determines our position. ”

“ The consequence of its having ceased to be known popularly by its ancient appellation would naturally be that the traditionary tale of the name being derived from the blood spilt there would be transferred to another and better known locality, which chanced—perhaps simply from the colour of the soil—to bear the same name. ”

“ There is a good deal to make one believe that 'town ' [see, above, TOWN] continued to be the common popular term for what we may describe in general language as a rural centre of population even into the 18th century. ... The far more general use of the word 'town' than of 'township' in early New England is most naturally explained by supposing that it was the word ordinarily employed in England at the time of the migration,—at any rate, in East Anglia. ”

“ If the city is on the sea, we should choose ground close to the harbour as the place where the forum is to be built; but if inland, in the middle of the town. ”

“ These names, which occupy such important positions on the maps, excite the imagination of the traveller, and when the reality comes into view, and he enters their narrow limits, the commonplace architecture and generally unattractive surroundings have a most depressing effect, and he sighs, "What's in a name?" ”