ICA course on Toponymy

Etymology
An example:

Nether = low, so Netherlands = Lowlands = Nederland

In the Netherlands lived two tribes in Roman times (50 AD), the Batavi and the Belgae. Around 1600 the federation of northern provinces were called in Latin: Belgium Foederatum. Around 1800 AD the Northern part of the Netherlands was called Batavian Republic, its main headquarter overseas was called Batavia; when the Southern part of the Netherlands became independent in 1830 it called itself after the other tribe, Belgium.

Descriptive names
Use of geographical names as brand names
Different types of wine, cheese or liquor are called after the region where they are produced:

Use of names as symbols
- Rome = empire
- Bonn, Pankow = cold war
- Stalingrad, Vietnam = batles
- Trianon, Saint Germain = traumatic peace treaties
- Bali = tropical paradise
- Paris = city of light, city of style
- Venice = water-city
- Siberia = inaccessible
  
  The name Bali is the symbol for a tourist paradise. Because of a bomb attack, it refers now to a threatened paradise.
Use of names for educational purposes
Educational names are used in order to explain topography and not for reference purposes:
Use of names for traffic/transportation

Names of bus stops, train stations or post offices are standardised because they also figure in time tables or lists of telegraph offices where telegrams used to be sent. It was so important that no ambiguity existed in the spelling of these names, that they were the earliest to be standardised.

Dictionnaire des bureaux de poste:

All the post offices in the world are listed in their proper spelling.

Use of names as a symbol for sovereignty

Decolonisation of African place names: red names are former colonial names.