D&D General What's in a place name? Apparently, water.

[gamerprinter]

Then you have Tokyo, which literally translates to Capital City, as well as Kyoto, which literally translates to City Capital, and for some reason, even though "To" and "Kyo" have nothing to do with compass directions, with the To in front of Kyo insinuates "east", whereas putting the To after the Kyo insinuates "west". So Kyoto is the "west capital", and Tokyo is "east capital". Originally Kyoto was the imperial capital, whereas Tokyo was the shogunate capital, but during the Meiji Period (1868 - 1912), they became both the Imperial Capital, with some sessions held in Tokyo, and some held in Kyoto. Prior to 1185, Kyoto was called Heian-kyo (Heian Period 794 - 1185, is the classical age of Japan).

 

[Laurefindel]

I wouldn’t be surprised if many towns included “town” in their name, in one form or another.

 

[gamerprinter]

I wouldn’t be surprised if many towns included “town” in their name, in one form or another.

Town and Ton, like Bryton, Charleston, and many others. And "ville" for village.

 

[Tonguez]

Town and Ton, like Bryton, Charleston, and many others.

Ton means farmstead and is equivalent to -ham
it is however cognate with both Dun and Town

 

[billd91]

Among places named for people, you also get explorers and traders as well as conquerors. But you also sometimes get misspellings. My hometown was initially named for a French-American fur trader Pierre Paquette - then someone misread the application for a post office and transcribed it as Poynette and a unique town name was born.

 

[gamerprinter]

Among places named for people, you also get explorers and traders as well as conquerors. But you also sometimes get misspellings. My hometown was initially named for a French-American fur trader Pierre Paquette - then someone misread the application for a post office and transcribed it as Poynette and a unique town name was born.

For me the funny thing is the mispronunciations by locals, which you cannot tell by the spelling of a community name. Right next to me, is a small town of Marseilles, IL., but locals call it "Mar sales", even though it should be "Mar say" as the French city name. Somewhere down south of me is a small town of San Jose, but they literally say "San Josey" and not "ho zay". Of course, I've almost never heard someone from elsewhere in the US pronounce "Illinois" correctly (the S is silent).

 

[Kurotowa]

In UK we have five different rivers all called River Ouse.
The likely reason is that the Roman invaders attempted to communicate with local Celts as to the name of the nearby “ moving channel of water” and were told “Ouse”, thereby naming it Fluvium Ouse.
Ouse is actually the Celtic word for river.
Thus in UK, we have five River Rivers......

Happens in America too. The next town over from me is Tumwater, because it's where the river meets the bay. And you guessed it, "Tum" was the local word for water.

 

[Tonguez]

. Of course, I've almost never heard someone from elsewhere in the US pronounce "Illinois" correctly (the S is silent).

heh, Im not USian but Ive always said Illinoi (silent s), it just feels better that way

 

[gamerprinter]

heh, Im not USian but Ive always said Illinoi (silent s), it just feels better that way

The saddest thing to me, however, is how geographically ignorant most Americans are (and I say that as an American). Twice in my life, I've had arguments, once with an entire family of the location of Hawaii. They say it's tropical islands, so it must be in the Caribbean... It's just sad.

 

[GuyBoy]

There are also many UK variants of the Latin word “castris”, which translates as castle, but referred to the fortified camps made by the legions rather than the more popular perception of castles from their medieval iterations.
Manchester, Doncaster, Leicester, Chester, Winchester, Cirencester, Lancaster etc.