Names and Naming

People, Places, Perceptions and Power

Edited by Guy Puzey, Laura Kostanski

Publication date:

02 February 2016

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781783094912

This book explores international trends in naming and contributes to the growing field of onomastic enquiry. Naming practices are viewed here through a critical lens, demonstrating a high level of political and social engagement in relation to how we name people and places. The contributors to this publication examine why names are not only symbols of a person or place, but also manifestations of cultural, linguistic and social heritage in their own right. Presenting analyses of geographically and culturally diverse perspectives and case studies, the book investigates how names can represent deeper kinds of identity, act as objects of attachment and dependence, and reflect community mores and social customs while functioning as powerful mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. The book will be of interest to researchers in onomastics, sociology, human geography, linguistics and history.

Contributors

Acknowledgements

Laura Kostanski and Guy Puzey: Trends in Onomastics: An Introduction

Part 1: The Varied Identities of People and Places

1. Katarzyna Aleksiejuk: Internet Personal Naming Practices and Trends in Scholarly Approaches

2. Ian D. Clark: Visitor Experiences of Aboriginal Place Names in Colonial Victoria, Australia, 1834–1900

3. Michael Walsh: Introduced Personal Names for Australian Aborigines: Adaptations to an Exotic Anthroponymy

4. Ellen S. Bramwell: Personal Naming and Community Practices in the Western Isles of Scotland: Putting Names ‘in the Gaelic Sense’

5. Peter Mühlhäusler and Joshua Nash: Signs of/on Power, Power on/of Signs: Language-Based Tourism, Linguistic Landscapes, and Onomastics on Norfolk Island

Part 2: Attitudes and Attachment

6. Laura Kostanski: The Controversy of Restoring Indigenous Names: Lessons Learnt and Strategies for Success

7. Terhi Ainiala: Attitudes towards Street Names in Helsinki

8. Maimu Berezkina: Linguistic Landscape and the Inhabitants’ Attitudes towards Place Names in Multicultural Oslo

9. Maggie Scott: Attitudes to Scots: Insights from the Toponymicon

10. Erzsébet Győrffy: Slang Toponyms in Hungary: A Survey of Attitudes among Language Users

Part 3: Power, Resistance and Control

11. Guy Puzey: Renaming as Counter-Hegemony: The Cases of Noreg and Padania

12. Staffan Nyström: Naming Parks, Foot-Paths and Small Bridges in a Multicultural Suburban Area

13. Justyna B. Walkowiak: Personal Names in Language Policy and Planning: Who Plans What Names for Whom and How?

14. Aud-Kirsti Pedersen: Is the Official Use of Names in Norway Determined by the Place-Names Act or Attitudes?

15. Kaisa Rautio Helander: The Power of Administration in the Official Recognition of Indigenous Place Names in the Nordic Countries

Index

This volume makes a key contribution to the rapidly-expanding field of critical onomastics, presenting new insights into the symbolic value of names in human society. Case studies from different parts of the world highlight the role of names as powerful symbols of identity, particularly in areas of language contact or conflict. The essays are both scholarly and accessible, and deserve to be widely read.