Toponyms: origins, meanings, and geographical significance

onyms, as defined by the online Miriam Webster dictionary, are place-names. This is a simple definition for a broad subject. The names that people assign to locations define more than a logistical point on a map. Names give others clues to the history, culture, and even the philosophy of a location.

The "shift of Cape Canaveral (Florida) to Cape Kennedy (1963-1973) after the late president's (1917-1963) untimely death" is a perfect example of a toponym that reflects a moment in time (Nuessel, 46). In Kentucky there is a place named "Bachelors Rest, a reference to males who sunned themselves on a bench in front of a local store (Rennick 1984:11)." (Nuessel 48). All place-name allusions do not depict a tragic moment, or have deep historical resonance.

From a cultural standpoint, toponyms give clues to the original settlers of a region, their customs and beliefs. "Foreign names often reflect the settlement patterns of European immigrants who came to this land after Columbus's discovery of the New World" (Nuessel 52). The name Los Angeles is the abbreviated version of the Spanish La Ciudad de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles. A fact easily learned by contacting the Chamber of Commerce for Los Angeles in California.