Place Names: How They Define The World - And More [First ed.] 9780810839069

Table of contents :
Front Cover
Front Flap
Full Title Page
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Shortened Versions of Organization Names
Part I: The Nature of a Place Name
1. What Is a Place Name?
DEFINITION AND FUNCTION
ORIGINS OF PLACE NAMES
CATEGORIES OF PLACE NAMES
NOTES
2. Regional Names
INTERNATIONAL REGIONAL NAMES
REGIONAL NAMES WITHIN COUNTRIES
LARGE BODIES OF WATER
NOTES
3. Maps Say Little without Place Names
PURPOSES OF A MAP
MAP CHARACTERISTICS
MAPPING TECHNIQUES
U.S. MAPPING AGENCIES
COMMERCIAL MAPS
ECOLOGY AND MAPS
NOTES
Part II: How Place Names Affect Us
4. How Place Names Communicate
INFORM US ABOUT OUR WORLD
IDENTIFY ASPECTS OF OUR LIVES
PROVIDE HISTORICAL INFORMATION
DESCRIBE THE NATURE OF TERRAIN
COMMON WORDS
ANIMAL NAMES
FAMILY NAMES
AUTOMOBILE NAMES
FOOD AND BEVERAGE NAMES
RAILROAD NAMES
MINERAL NAMES
NOTES
5. Place Names and the Arts
LITERATURE
Poetry
Plays
MUSIC
Classical Music
Popular Music
Special Music
Patriotic Songs
Religious Songs
Songs in Areas without Written Languages
PAINTINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS
NOTES
Part III: Place Names Are Not Permanent
6. Where in the World Is That Place?
NAMES IN THE HEADLINES
THE IRON CURTAIN IS LIFTED
THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
OTHER COUNTRIES CHANGED NAMES
NAMES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
NAMES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
My Lai, Vietnam - Was It My Lai 1, My Lai 2, My Lai 3, My Lai 4,My Lai 5, or My Lai 6?
THE PERSIAN GULF OR THE ARABIAN GULF
A CASE OF NAMES IN HEADLINES OF THE PAST
NAMES IN FUTURE HEADLINES
NOTES
7. Names in Multilingual Countries
DIFFERENT LANGUAGES, DIFFERENT NAMES
HOW MANY LANGUAGES ARE THERE?
EXAMPLES OF DIFFERING PLACE NAMES
NOTES
Part IV: Efforts to End the Confusion
8. Countries Recognize the Problem
THE SITUATION IN THE UNITED STATES
CREATION O F THE U. S. BOARD ON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES
THE UNITED STATES ADDRESSES WRITING SYSTEMS OF FOREIGN NAMES
MILITARY NEEDS REQUIRED THE REESTABLISHMENT OF THE BOARD
THE BOARD IS REORGANIZED
OTHER NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BODIES
NOTES
9. The United Nations Joins the Effort
THE UNITED NATIONS LOOKS AT PLACE NAMES
U.N. GROUP OF EXPERTS ON GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
HOW U.N. PROGRAMS WORK
FUTURE U.N. EFFORTS
NOTES
10. A Need for Place Names Where People Don't Live
UNDERSEA FEATURES
ANTARCTICAN FEATURES
EXTRATERRESTRIAL FEATURES
11. The Terminology of Names
WHY IS TERMINOLOGY NEEDED?
IS IT A PLACE NAME, A GEOGRAPHIC NAME, A GEOGRAPHICAL NAME, OR A TOPONYM?
SPECIFIC AND GENERIC TERMS
NAMES OF CITIES, COUNTIES, STATES, AND COUNTRIES
NAMES DEFINED AS "FALSE GENERICS"
CONVENTIONAL NAMES
SHORT AND LONG FORMS OF NAMES
STANDARDIZATION OF NAMES
CATEGORIZATION OF PLACE NAMES
DESIGNATIONS
VARIATIONS OF TERMINOLOGY
VARIATIONS IN MEANING
ALLONYM
EXONYM
HYDRONYM
NOTES
12. If Your Language Is English, How Do You Write or Pronounce Arabic or Russian Names?
CONVERTING NAMES FROM ONE LANGUAGE OR WRITING SYSTEM TO OTHERS
LANGUAGES AND WRITING SYSTEMS
TRANSLATION, ROMANIZATION, TRANSLITERATION, AND TRANSCRIPTION
U.S. AND U.K. ROMANIZATION SYSTEMS
PRONUNCIATION OF PLACE NAMES
NOTES
13 Gazetteers
NOTES
Part V. U.S. and International Names Programs during and after the Cold War
14. The Cold War
THE COLD WAR IMPACT ON U.N. NAMES PROGRAMS
SOVIET MAPS WITH INCORRECT NAMES
NOTES
15. The U.S. Department of State
NOTES
16. U.S. Intelligence Agencies
NOTE
17. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NOTES
18. After the Cold War
Part VI. Interesting and Unusual Names
19. Names in Dispute
SOME DISPUTES IN THE UNITED STATES
Mount McKinley or Denali in Alaska
Mount Rainier or Tacoma in the State of Washington
Cape Canaveral or Cape Kennedy in Florida
Daugherty or Dougherty in Texas
SOME DISPUTE S IN FOREIGN AREAS
The Sea of Japan, the East Sea, the Sea of Korea, or East Sea/Sea of Japan
Names in Israel and Countries of the Middle East
West Bank or Judea and Samaria
Cyprus
NAMES COMMON TO THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
NOTES
20. Unusual and Unacceptable Names
LONG NAMES
SHORT NAMES
NAMES WITH COMMON ENDINGS
NAMES WITH UNUSUAL ORIGINS
A REQUEST FOR AN ANIMAL-FRIENDLY PLACE NAME
HOW MANY GREAT LAKES ARE THERE?
COMMON NAMES IN THE UNITED STATES
THE SHORTEST RIVER IN UNITED STATES
WHERE IS A TOWN CALLED LAKE WOBEGON?
A PUNCTUATION MARK MEANS A NEW NAME?
THE LAST NAME IN ANY GAZETTEER
UNACCEPTABLE NAMES IN THE UNITED STATES
NOTES
Afterword
Appendix A: Common Words Derived from Place Names
Appendix B: Independent States of the World
NOTES
Appendix C: Structure and Working Procedures of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names
STRUCTURE
Agencies Responsible for Board Membership
Committees
Advisory Committees
WORKING PROCEDURES
The Board
The Domestic Names Committee
Samples of Actions on Proposals for New Names Submitted to the Domestic Names Committee
Foreign Names Committee
Excerpt from Minutes of the 306th Quarterly Meeting of the Foreign Names Committee, January 29, 1997 (comments rewritten to provide full description)
Appendix D: Excerpts from BGN Gazetteers of Undersea Features and Antarctic Names
UNDERSEA FEATURES
ANTARCTIC NAMES
Appendix E: Examples of Conventional Names
NOTE
Appendix F: Selected Place Names from the BGN Digital Gazetteer of Austria
COLUMN HEADINGS
Appendix G: Comparative Examples of Selected Russian Cyrillic
NAMES ACCORDING TO THE OFFICIAL RUSSIAN SYSTEM (GOST 1983) AND THE BGN/PCGN SYSTEM
Appendix H: BGN /PCGN Romanization System for Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic
NOTE
Appendix I: Accessing Information about Foreign and Domestic Place Names Processed by the BGN
ACCESS VIA THE INTERNET
DIGITAL INTERIM GEOGRAPHIC NAMES DATA ON CD-ROM
HARD-COPY GAZETTEERS
RECENT CHANGES IN FOREIGN PLACE NAMES
FOREIGN NAMES INQUIRY SERVICE
INFORMATION ABOUT STANDARDIZING FOREIGN AND UNDERSEA NAMES
INFORMATION ABOUT DOMESTIC AND ANTARCTIC NAMES
PRINCIPAL PERSONS INVOLVED WITH BGN NAMES PROGRAMS
Domestic U.S. Names and Antarctic Names
Foreign Names
Internet Access to Agencies Involved with BGN Programs
Appendix J: U.S. and Other Sources of Information about Place Names
THE U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
THE WEB
THE UNITED NATIONS
Sources Cited
Useful Published Sources
SOURCES CITED IN ENDNOTES
OTHER SOURCES RELATED TO PLACE NAMES
Index
About the Author
Back Flap
Back Cover

Citation preview

Place Names

How They Define the World -and More Richard R. Randall

I The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham, Maryland, and London 2001

SCARECROW PRESS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Scarecrow Press, Inc. 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www .scarecrowpress.com 4 Pleydell Gardens, Folkestone Kent CT20 2DN, England Copyright © 2001 by Richard R. Randall

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo­ copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

American Names by Stephen Vincent Benet, from The Devil and Daniel Webster and Other Writings, Penguin Books Copyright © 1927 by Stephen Vincent Benet Copyright renewed © 1955 by Rosemary Carr Benet Reprinted by permission of Brandt & Brandt Literary Agents, Inc.

Geographical Fugue, by Ernst Toch Copyright © 1950 (Renewed) EMI Mills Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Used by Permission Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Randall, Richard R. Place names: how they define the world-and more I Richard R. Randall. p. cm. ISBN 0-8108-3906-7 (alk. paper) 1. Names, Geographical. I. Title. 00-059531 G105.R36 2001 910' .3----dc21 §™The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America.

Contents

Preface

ix

Introduction

xiii

Shortened Versions of Organization Names

xvii

Part I . The Nature of a Place Name

1 . What I s a Place Name? Definition and Function Origins of Place Names Categories of Place Names

1

3 3 5 6

2. Regional Names International Regional Names Regional Names within Countries Large Bodies of Water

11 11 13 15

3 . Maps Say Little without Place Names Purposes of a Map Map Characteristics Mapping Techniques U.S. Mapping Agencies Commercial Maps Ecology and Maps

17 17 18 19 20 23 23

iii

iv

Conten ts Part II. How Place Names Affect Us

25

4. How Place Names Communicate Inform Us about Our World Identify Aspects of Our Lives Provide Historical Information Describe the Nature of Terrain Common Words Animal Names Family Names Automobile Names Food and Beverage Nam es Railroad Names Mineral Names

27 27 27 31 32 33 34 34 35 36 36 37

5. Place Names and the Arts Literature Music Paintings and Photographs

41 41 44 49

Part III. Place Names Are Not Permanent

53

6. Where in the World Is That Place? Names in the Headlines The Iron Curtain Is Lifted The Former Yugoslavia Other Countries Changed Names Names in the Middle East Names in Southeast Asia The Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf A Case of Names in Headlines of the Past Names in Future Headlines

55 55 55 56 57 58 58 60 60 61

7. Names in Multilingual Countries Different Languages, Different Names How Many Languages Are There? Examples of Differing Place Names

63 63 64 64

Part IV. Efforts to End the Confusion

69

8. Countries Recognize the Problem The Situation in the United States Creation of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names The United States Addresses Writing Systems of Foreign Names Military Needs Required the Reestablishment of the Board

71 71 72 73 73

Contents

The Uoard Is Reorganized Other Na tional and Interna tional Bodies 9. The United Nations Joins the Effort The United Na tions Looks at Place Names U.N. Group of Experts on Geographical Names How U.N. Programs Work Future U.N. Efforts

v 74 76 81 81 82 85 87

10. A Need for Place Na mes Where People Don't Live Undersea Features Antarctican Features Extraterrestrial Features

91 91 93 94

1 1 . The Terminology of Names Why Is Terminology Needed? Is It a Place Name, a Geographic Name, a Geographical Name, or a Toponym? Specific and Generic Terms Names of Cities, Counties, States, and Countries Names Defined as "False Generics" Conventional Names Short and Long Forms of Names Standardization of Names Categorization of Place Names Designations Variations of Terminology

97 97 98 99 99 1 00 100 101 1 02 1 02 1 03 1 04

12. If Your Language Is English, How Do You Write or Pronounce Arabic or Russian Names? Converting Names from One Language or Writing System to Others Languages and Writing Systems Translation, Romanization, Transliteration, and Transcription U.S. and U.K. Romanization Systems Pronunciation of Place Names

1 07 1 08 1 09 110 111

13. Gazetteers

115

1 07

Part V . U.S. and International Names Programs during and after the Cold War

14. The Cold War The Cold War Impact on U.N. Names Programs Soviet Maps with Incorrect Names

119

1 21 121 1 22

vi

Contents

15. The U.S. Department of State

1 25

16.

127

U.S. Intelligence Agencies

17. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization

129

18. After the Cold War

133

19.

Part VI. Interesting and Unusual Names

135

Names in Dispute Some Disputes in the United States Some Disputes in Foreign Areas Names Common to the United States and Canada

137 137 139 142

20. Unusual and Unacceptable Names Long Names Short Names Names with Common Endings Names with Unusual Origins A Request for an Animal-Friendly Place Name How Many Great Lakes Are There? Common Names in the United States The Shortest River in the United States Where Is a Town Called Lake Wobegon? A Punctuation Mark Means a New Name? The Last Name in Any Gazetteer Unacceptable Names in the United States

145 145 146 146 147 147 147 148 148 148 149 149 150

Afterword

153

Appendix A. Common Words Derived from Place Names

155

Appendix B. Independent States of the World

159

Appendix C. Structure and Working Procedures of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names

167

Appendix D. Excerpts from BGN Gazetteers of Undersea Features and Antarctic Names

175

Appendix E. Examples of Conventional Names

177

Appendix F. Selected Place Names from the BGN Digital Gazetteer of Austria

179

Appendix G. Comparative Examples of Selected Russian Cyrillic

181

Contents

vii

App ndix 11. BGN/P GN Roma nization System for erbo- roation yrillic

1 83

Appendix I. Acces ing Informa tion abou t Foreign and U.S. Domestic Place Names Processed by the BGN

1 85

Appendix J. U.S. and Other Sou rces of Information about Place Names

1 89

Sources Cited

191

Usefu l Published Sou rces

1 93

Index

1 97

Abou t the Au thor

203

'

:

-

Preface

My interest in places and their names stems from my earliest years. Born in Toledo, Ohio, I was fascinated with a nearby river called Maumee and a former canal called Erie. I often visited relatives elsewhere in Ohio and in California at places whose names impressed me. My later years took me to Canada, Europe, Latin America, and the southwestern Pacific. Refer­ ences to the names in my diaries quickly generate memories of many places . Another place name had an influence: Mount Rainier in the state of Washington. My middle name is Rainier, and my lineage includes the British admiral Peter Rainier, for whom the mountain was named. A Fulbright scholarship to Austria permitted me to carry out research for a Ph.D. in geography. My topic of study was the status of the Slovene minority in the southern part of that country with regard to efforts over the years to merge their territory with adjacent Yugoslavia, where their ethnic counterparts lived. My travels in both countries provided a fascinating perspective of how place names related to the cultural backgrounds of the populations. I then became an analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to produce geopolitical studies of southeastern Europe. Later I was the Washington representative for Rand McNally and Com­ pany, responsible for obtaining cartographic and related data from federal and other agencies to support the company's role as the world's foremost private map and atlas maker. In 1 973, I was appointed the geographer of the Defense Mapping Agency (OMA) and the executive secretary of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN), the interagency body responsi­ ble for capturing correct names in the United States and the rest of the world to meet official U.S. requirements. This assignment, which lasted more than twenty years, required continuous contact with the nine U.S. agencies having members on the board and gave me detailed knowledge about their functions and their specific needs for accurate place names. I also worked with bodies of the United Nations (U.N.) as a U.S. repre­ sentative to develop and direct various international names programs. This function required me to collaborate with other countries during the ix

x

Preface

Cold War, including the Soviet Union and its allied countries to the extent it was feasible. I presented many papers to professional and general audi­ ences, provided articles and book reviews for professional journals, gave interviews to the press, and wrote numerous reports to meet U.S. govern­ ment requirements. With support from the Pan American Institute of Ge­ ography and History (PAIGH) and the DMA (renamed the National Im­ agery and Mapping Agency [NIMA] in 1996), I designed a two-week course in 1987 to teach methods of names standardization to representatives of Latin American countries. I gave most of the class lectures each year (except 1988) through 1992. The course continues under the leadership of BGN of­ ficers and local authorities as the only one of its kind in the world. Upon retirement, I knew that while many books on names had been pub­ lished, none covered the picture I had come to know in great detail. At this point, I began to research official files, personal records, and other sources. My continuing contacts with people in BGN and in other U.S. and foreign organizations assured me access to a vast library of current materials on place names. I recognize and appreciate the scholarly works that many in­ dividuals have created in the field of place names, or toponymy, and I refer to such materials as appropriate. Although my writing in many ways re­ flects their impressive contributions, it is not my goal to produce a book of an exclusively academic nature. I am grateful to numerous people in the United States and other countries. Special thanks are due to Dr. Meredith F. Burrill, the executive secretary of BGN from 1943 to 1973 and my mentor and friend until his death in 1997. He shaped many policies that still affect the nature and function of BGN and United Nations names programs. In addition, I thank many people on the BGN staffs for U.S. and foreign names. They include Don­ ald Orth, formerly the BGN executive secretary for domestic names, Roger Payne, the current BGN executive secretary and executive secre­ tary for domestic names, Randall Flynn, the BGN executive secretary for foreign names, and Gerd Quinting, a scientific linguist at NIMA. I also ex­ press thanks for the support of the NIMA and its erstwhile Latin Ameri­ can body, the Inter-American Geodetic Survey. In addition, I am grateful to the P AIGH for helping me initiate and teach courses on names stan­ dardization in Latin America. I am indebted also to names experts in other countries for their collabo­ rative work on numerous occasions. In the United Kingdom are H. A. G. Lewis, for many years the chairman of the Permanent Committee on Geo­ graphical Names for British Official Use (PCGN), Patrick Geelan, former secretary of the PCGN, and Paul Woodman, the current secretary. The col­ laboration of Henri Dorion and Michael Smart in Canada was also valu-

Preface

xi

ubk. Also signifirnnt were the close working relationships I had with lead­

ing names au thorities of other nations, and with people in the U.N. Eco­ nomic