Questions tagged [toponymy]
The history and etymology of place names.
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When did the United Kingdom become "United" rather than merely united? (I.e., that word became part of its name.)
In 1707 the two British kingdoms of England and Scotland became one kingdom.
I naively thought that that was when the name "United Kingdom" first came to be used as the proper official name ...
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What place was called [in Latin] Audomaropolitanus?
I came across an old image of one of my wife's ancestors from the late 16th century, and below it is written
Jacobus Pamelius, Episcopus Audomaropolitanus designatus
which in English is
Jacobus ...
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What was the Gothic language name for Ravenna?
I'm trying to surmise what was/might have been the Gothic name for Ravenna, which served as the Ostrogothic capital for some time. Gothic does have the sounds to emulate the Latin pronunciation (...
Greg N.
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Which city has had the most name changes?
Today, the Kazakh parliament decided to rename their capital from Nur-Sultan back to Astana (source). According to that article,
Few cities in the world can have been renamed as often as Kazakhstan’s ...
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What is the origin of the name of Kondofrej, Bulgaria?
There is a small village in Western Bulgaria, not very far from the capital Sofia called Кондофрей roughly transliterated as Kondofrey. It is an otherwise completely unremarkable village except that ...
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Was Castro City ever a city?
I obtained a map of a South-East SF Bay.
Officially it is Page 8 of San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont, Berkeley set, compiled by the Soviet Main Intelligence Department of General Staff (ГРУ ГШ) in 1976....
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Besides Massachusetts and Rhode Island, have any other U.S. states changed their names?
In 1781 the State of Massachusetts Bay became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In 2020 the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations became the State of Rhode Island (when most people who ...
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What was Sir John Mandeville's source regarding Beersheba and its chronology?
After men have crossed this desert on the way to Jerusalem, they come to a city which is called Bersabee [Beersheba] which was once a fine city in habited by Christian men, and still there are some of ...
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Why is the city of Armenia in Colombia so named?
One of the medium-sized cities in present-day Colombia, with a population of around 300 thousand, is called Armenia. According to its Wikipedia entry, some people believe it was named in memory of the ...
user46904
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Since when is the Nile Delta known as "Delta"?
It is common knowledge that the Nile delta looks roughly triangular in form, hence roughly like a greek capital delta (especially when on a map oriented with the south on top). According to wikipedia, ...
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What is the relationship (if any) between Skøyen and Skøyenåsen in Oslo?
In Oslo there are two neighbourhoods called Skøyen and Skøyenåsen
"Åsen" means "the hill" or "the ridge", so Skøyenåsen means "The Skøyen Hill".
Skøyen and ...
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Was "Street" more common than the abbreviated "St." in pre-1910 American newspapers?
As a hobby I like to research buildings and other structures around where I live, and part of that entails searching old newspaper archives. Generally this is in California. Since I am not looking at ...
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Why did the English name of "Pacific Ocean" stick if it has been known by many cultures since ancient times? [closed]
As far as I understand, the largest ocean on Earth is know worldwide as the Pacific Ocean, a name given by Ferdinand Magellan in 1519. However, it is surprising to me that such a name stuck given that ...
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How common are the following activities historically? [closed]
In present day India the ruling party has started to rename the cities by claiming to take them to their origins. It has been discussed here, here and here. Primarily the cities with Muslim Names for ...
user38443
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What is a "staved" town, like in "Staverton"?
I'm researching Staverton, Northampton(shire), England. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it is called Stavertone. According to wikipedia, the meaning of the town name is 'staved" town. I've looked up ...
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