The study of the early forms of present place names may indicate the culture which gave the name together with the characteristics of the site. For example, ey meaning a dry point and ley meaning a forest, wood, glade, or clearing appear in many place names such as Chelsea and Henley-in-Arden. Place names are used as evidence for the dating of a settlement from which a chronology of settlements may be devised. There are pitfalls; ham can mean either village or water-meadow, for example.

Place names label, define, and represent places and people—see Alderman, Area 35, for a discussion on the use of Martin Luther King Jr's name. Under colonialism, places were renamed, and while many pre-colonial names were restored after independence, scores have been irretrievably lost. Extensive renaming took place as a political project shortly after the formation of the Soviet Union. (For the most part, by popular vote, the pre-revolutionary names have been re-established, but some of the resonances have been lost; the meanings attached to the ‘Leningrad Siege’ (1941-3) do not survive the change to the ‘St Petersburg Siege’.)

In other cases, new names have been coined; as official commemorations (Lennon Airport), or as part of state formation. Recordings still exist of a calypso written to educate and unite a disparate but newly created nation: ‘Ghana, Ghana is the name…’.

A Dictionary of Geography. Copyright © Susan Mayhew 1992, 1997, 2004. All rights reserved.