California Place Names

California Place Names

Author: Erwin G. Gudde

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 0520266196

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This anniversary edition concentrates on the origins of the names currently used for the cities, towns, settlements, mountains, and streams of California, with engrossing accounts of the history of their usage. The dictionary includes a glossary and a bibliography.


Place Names of Illinois

Place Names of Illinois

Author: Edward Callary

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2010-10-01

Total Pages: 458

ISBN-13: 0252090705

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This extensive guide shows how the history and culture of Illinois are embedded in the names of its towns, cities, and other geographical features. Edward Callary unearths the origins of names of nearly three thousand Illinois communities and the circumstances surrounding their naming and renaming. Organized alphabetically, the entries are concise, engaging, and full of fascinating detail revealing the rich ethnic history of the state, the impact of industrialization and the coming of the railroads, and insight into local politics and personalities. Many entries also provide information on local pronunciation, the name’s etymology, and the community’s location, all set in historical and cultural context. A general introduction locates Illinois place names in the context of general patterns of place naming in the United States. An extremely useful reference for scholars of American history, geography, language, and culture, Place Names of Illinois also offers intriguing browsing material for the inquisitive reader and the curious traveler.


Michigan Place Names

Michigan Place Names

Author: Walter Romig

Publisher: Wayne State University Press

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 718

ISBN-13: 9780814318386

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From Aabec in Antrim County to Zutphen in Ottawa County, from Hell to Hooker, Michigan Place Names is a compendium of information on the origins of the state's geographical names. With alphabetically arranged thumb-nail sketches, Walter Romig introduces readers to a host of colorful personalities and episodes which have achieved notoriety, though sometimes shortlived, by devising or lending their names to the state's settlements. Romig spent more than ten years researching and documenting the entries to which he added an extensive bibliography of sources and an index of the personal names used in the text. For the curious, the librarian, the genealogist, or the historian, his book is an indispensable resource. Michigan Place Names is another "Michigan classic" reissued as a Great Lakes Book.


A History of English Place Names and Where They Came From

A History of English Place Names and Where They Came From

Author: John Moss

Publisher: Pen and Sword History

Published: 2020-05-30

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1526722879

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The origin of the names of many English towns, hamlets and villages date as far back as Saxon times, when kings like Alfred the Great established fortified borough towns to defend against the Danes. A number of settlements were established and named by French Normans following the Conquest. Many are even older and are derived from Roman placenames. Some hark back to the Vikings who invaded our shores and established settlements in the eighth and ninth centuries. Most began as simple descriptions of the location; some identified its founder, marked territorial limits, or gave tribal people a sense of their place in the grand scheme of things. Whatever their derivation, placenames are inextricably bound up in our history and they tell us a great deal about the place where we live.


The Place Names of New Mexico

The Place Names of New Mexico

Author: Robert Julyan

Publisher: UNM Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 9780826316899

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The indispensable traveler's guide to the history of places throughout the Land of Enchantment.


Names of New York

Names of New York

Author: Joshua Jelly-Schapiro

Publisher: Pantheon

Published: 2021-04-13

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1524748927

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"A casually wondrous experience; it made me feel like the city was unfolding beneath my feet.” —Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror In place-names lie stories. That’s the truth that animates this fascinating journey through the names of New York City’s streets and parks, boroughs and bridges, playgrounds and neighborhoods. Exploring the power of naming to shape experience and our sense of place, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro traces the ways in which native Lenape, Dutch settlers, British invaders, and successive waves of immigrants have left their marks on the city’s map. He excavates the roots of many names, from Brooklyn to Harlem, that have gained iconic meaning worldwide. He interviews the last living speakers of Lenape, visits the harbor’s forgotten islands, lingers on street corners named for ballplayers and saints, and meets linguists who study the estimated eight hundred languages now spoken in New York. As recent arrivals continue to find new ways to make New York’s neighborhoods their own, the names that stick to the city’s streets function not only as portals to explore the past but also as a means to reimagine what is possible now.


The Book of English Place Names

The Book of English Place Names

Author: Caroline Taggart

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2011-06-08

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1409034984

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Take a journey down winding lanes and Roman roads in this witty and informative guide to the meanings behind the names of England's towns and villages. From Celtic farmers to Norman conquerors, right up to the Industrial Revolution, deciphering our place names reveals how generations of our ancestors lived, worked, travelled and worshipped, and how their influence has shaped our landscape. From the most ancient sacred sites to towns that take their names from stories of giants and knights, learn how Roman garrisons became our great cities, and discover how a meeting of the roads could become a thriving market town. Region by region, Caroline Taggart uncovers hidden meanings to reveal a patchwork of tall tales and ancient legends that collectively tells the story of how we made England.


Ancient Place Names in the Holy Land

Ancient Place Names in the Holy Land

Author: Yoel Elitsur

Publisher: Eisenbrauns

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13:

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That many ancient toponyms in the Holy Land have survived for thousands of years, right up to modern times, is a remarkable and unique phenomenon, unparalleled in neighboring countries, such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Asia Minor. Preserved toponymy provides a basis for research in the historical geography of the country and is also of major importance for studies in the history of Hebrew and Aramaic, being a kind of ancient "recording" of an archaic linguistic inventory. In addition, it has many implications for a wide variety of other scholarly fields, such as Bible studies, Rabbinics, Qumran and Samaritan studies, early Christianity, Arabic and Islam. This reserve of preserved place-names is therefore frequently consulted and used by scholars for their purposes. Surprisingly, however, despite the importance of this subject, there have been very few attempts to "put things in order," and for many years there have been no rules that would help to understand the changes that occur in toponyms. Accordingly, the prevailing situation in the field of historical geography is one of near-anarchy; lacking hard and fast rules, scholars could find support for their identification of an ancient toponym in any somewhat similar Arabic name. In order to break this vicious circle of conjectures founded on dubious linguistic assumptions, producing "preservation laws" themselves provide an alleged basis for historical identification, and so on, Elitzur has tried, first and foremost, to lay down objective criteria for the selection of positive identifications. On this basis, he has built up a corpus of 177 toponyms representing positive or almost-positive identifications, upon which this study is based. Sixty of these toponyms are then reviewed in depth, tracing their documentation in all languages, throughout recorded history; in the process, the author has tried to locate and analyze whatever changes occurred and when. The linguistic conclusions from the material follow, arranged according to the standard layout of grammar books. Innovative conclusions and ideas in the context of historical geography emerged in the course of the study are listed alphabetically in the last part of the volume.