Place Name Origins - Toponymic Processes

Toponymic Processes

There are identifiable processes which occur over time to place names, and which alter the place names in such a way that their original meanings are lost. These apply to both the names of settlements and natural features, although more so to the former.

The processes by which place names change include abbreviation, conflation, convergence, development in the parent language (but stasis in the place name) and replacement of the parent language. The latter in particular can result in dramatic shifts in place names, since the original meaning (and often sounds) are not conveyed in the new language, the place name thus shifts to a form appropriate for the new language.

• Abbreviation tends to break down a name into a more easily pronounced form, e.g.Cantwaraburh to Canterbury; Dornwaracaster to Dorchester.
• Conflation is where two similar elements of place names become confused, for instance the Old English roots don (hill) and den (valley) are conflated in place names e.g. Willesden ('stream hill'), Croydon ('crocus valley').
• Convergence occurs when place names drift towards other familiar phonemes in place names; e.g. in Abingdon (Aebbeduna, 'Aebbe's hill'), the middle sound has converged to the familiar 'ing' found in many place names (usually meaning 'people of').
• Evolution of the parent language may not change a place name by itself; indeed names may show more inertia to change than languages themselves. However, evolution of the parent language permits other processes to occur. For instance, if a name no longer means anything in the modified language, it may drift towards a new form; e.g. Maethelac ('Moot-oak') to Matlock. Or, as the parent language changes, attributes which already form part of a name may be appended to the name. For instance Portsea Island ('Port-island island'); once the meaning of Portsea became obscure, it became necessary to add island.
• Replacement of the parent language is one of the most dramatic processes of change. If, for whatever reason, a new language becomes spoken in the area, a place name may lose all meaning. At its most severe, the name may be completely replaced. However, often the name may be recycled and altered in some way. Typically, this will be in one of the above ways; as the meaning of place-name is forgotten, it becomes changed to a name suitable for the new language. For instance Brittonic Eborakon (perhaps 'place of the yew trees') became Anglo-Saxon Eoforwic ('Boar-town'), then Old Norse Jorvik ('Horse-bay'), and modern English York.
• Elaboration of place names often occurred to make distinctions between similarly named settlements. For instance, in England, two nearby and related settlements often became 'lower/nether' and 'upper/higher'; or 'little' and 'great' (or the equivalent in Latin, parva and magna). Alternatively, two geographically separated places might be distinguished by local features; e.g. Newcastle-under-Lyme and Newcastle upon Tyne; or Newton-le-Willows, Newton-by-Frodsham, Newton under Roseberry (and so on). In England, many additions were made in the medieval period, to show that settlements were ruled by certain families, e.g. as Stoke Mandeville. Some elaborations (particularly in Latin) date back to medieval times, such as Weston-super-Mare ('Weston-on-sea'), while others were added relatively recently, for instance Bognor Regis ('Bognor of the King').
• Backformation: the process whereby names are derived from one another in the opposite direction to that which would be expected - in many cases a river with an obsolete or forgotten name is renamed after a town on its banks rather than vice versa. For example, the river running through Rochdale became known as the 'Roch' through this process. Cambridge perhaps uniquely illustrates both normal and back formation. Originally Grantabrice, a bridge on the Granta, the name became Cantebrugge, and then Cambrigge, from which the river was renamed 'Cam'.