the origin of place names

There is a fascinating book just out which looks at the origin of place names:

Found In Translation — Duncan Madden

Found in Translation: The Unexpected Origins of Place Names | Stanfords

Here are a couple of excerpts, published in the i-newspaper:

Land of rabbits and the canoe – five amazing stories of how countries got their names

From one of our favourite holiday destinations to far-flung Australia, the names of countries reveal a fascinating insight to their history

By Duncan Madden

.

While you may take the time to learn a bit about the country you’re off on holiday to, have you ever thought about its name – what it means and where it came from? The study of etymology and how places got their names is a treasure trove of extraordinary stories – invasions and rebellions, cultures and religions, adventures and disasters – that can tell us a lot about the countries we visit and the histories that shaped them.

Argentina – ‘silvery land’

Argentina’s naming is a story of adventure, misfortune and almost unfathomable derring-do. It concerns the travails of Portuguese conquistador Aleixo Garcia who, shipwrecked on the Brazilian coast in the early 16th century, became obsessed with the legend of a White King and his vast wealth hidden somewhere in the South American interior, most likely to be in the borders of the Inca Empire.

Garcia spent eight years planning his assault and building an army before marching into Inca territory and, amazingly, escaping loaded with silver booty. But on his journey home following the Río de la Plata, “river of silver”, into Argentina, Garcia was betrayed and killed by a supposedly friendly indigenous tribe. Those in his army who did escape survived to spread the story of the land of silver beside the river of silver.

The final linguistic twist in the tale comes from the switch in language – plata is Spanish but argentina is Italian for silver. For this we can thank the Venetian and Genoese cartographers of the time, whose Italian language maps became the mainstay throughout Europe and in doing so cemented Argentina as the name of the silvery land – much to Spain’s annoyance.

Spain – ‘land of rabbits’

Talking of Spain, the world’s second most popular holiday destination has one of the more curious meanings of any country, dating back to the time of the Phoenicians.

Arriving on the Iberian Peninsula around 1,000 BC, said Phoenicians were met with an unexpected sight – millions of rabbits running rampant across the landscape. Never having seen such critters before, they assumed them to be a type of hyrax, sphan in their language (a furry mammal native to their homelands in the Middle East), and so named the land for them, I-Shaphan, “island of the hyraxes (or rabbits)”. And yes, the Phonicians assumed, wrongly of course, that they had landed on an island rather than the peninsula of Iberia.

Despite the strange circumstances that inspired it, the empires and cultures that followed the Phoenicians stuck with their name, adapting it along the way until the Romans were using Hispania all the way up until the Spain of today.

...

Land of rabbits and the canoe - five amazing stories of how countries got their names

Of course, there is lots more:

Place name origins - Wikipedia

The History and Origins of Placenames

The origins of place names

How to Navigate by Nostalgia: The Linguistics of Place Names - JSTOR Daily

Origins of Canada's Geographical Names

Diversity in New York Place Names | National Geographic Society

.

.

.