S20: Names as cultural heritage
  
 

1. Names as carriers of meaning
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Names that are a reflection of their original conditions, when the region was first settled, be it by nomadic or permanent inhabitants. Names could express:

  • physical conditions - soils, vegetation, fauna, spectacular weather conditions, etc. (e.g. the isle of Skye (UK).

  • the object itself - new town, market place, castle, dam (e.g. Neustadt (Germany), Newcastle (UK), Neukirchen (Germany) or Amsterdam, see below).


    Amsterdam started as a fishing village on the river Amstel in which a dam was built to prevent flooding:
    Amstel + dam > Amstelredam > Amsterdam

  • the history of the object (an event, an important person that visited the place or the person that originally settled the place

Excercise 1: try to find the original meaning of place names in your area.

 
 
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Copyright United Nations Statistics Division and International Cartographic Association, July 2012