Names and Naming: People, Places, Perceptions and Power

by Guy Puzey (Editor), Laura Kostanski (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783094905
Publisher:	Channel View Publications
Publication date:	02/02/2016
Series:	Multilingual Matters , #163
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Guy Puzey is Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK. His research interests include language policy, linguistic landscapes and geosemiotics, critical sociolinguistics and toponomastics, particularly in the contexts of Scotland and the Nordic countries.

Laura Kostanski is Director at Geonaming Solutions Pty Ltd & Address Exchange Pty Ltd, and is based in Australia. Her research interests include toponymy, human geography, geospatial systems, crowd sourcing, government policy and Indigenous cultural heritage.

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

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.

Carole Hough

This volume covers a variety of pressing themes in naming studies. Due to the
interdisciplinary nature of the field of onomastics and the critical approach advocated
by the contributors, the book is also particularly valuable for scholars in pragmatics,
human geography, and sociology.

Johanna Warm in Society 47 (2018)

This volume forms an extraordinary contribution that clearly illuminates the relevance of critical onomastics. It has the ability to inspire scholars to conduct politically aware and socially engaged onomastic research. The volume deserves to be read by everyone interested in the roles of names and naming.

Journal of the English Place-Name Society 48 (2016) - Emilia Aldrin

This book is a welcome addition to the expanding field of onomastics. It joins the likes of Hough’s (2016) edited volume to present a wealth of studies that would broaden our understanding of how naming practices affect people, places and of what images and attitudes their names conjure up. In fact, this book shares seven contributors with Hough’s volume. The interdisciplinary nature of the field of onomastics makes this book a treasure for post-graduate students and researchers in cultural studies, historical linguistics, human geography and planning, lexicology, sociolinguistics, sociology, and urbanization.

LINGUIST List 27.5049 - Paula Prescod

I have been working with place names for many years but the articles in this publication have continued my education of the role that names of all varieties play in helping us to find our place. This is not only in a spatial sense, but in cultural and personal aspects I had not previously considered. These papers allowed me to see this and I commend all for the work that has been undertaken in the investigation and preparation of the insights presented.

William Watt

Names and Naming: People, Places, Perceptions and Power is a great addition to the ‘critical turn’ in naming studies. Guy Puzey and Laura Kostanski have brought together an excellent group of scholars to produce a diverse range of empirically rich and critically aware case studies of the politics of naming. This is an important book for anyone who wants to learn about the latest developments in socially engaged and critical approaches to onomastics.

Lawrence D. Berg

This book describes very well the socio-linguistic diversity in each country, and it is also possible to see some similitude, such as the struggle of minority languages against hegemonies. It is without a doubt a promising field.

Onomastica Canadiana, Vol. 95 (2016) - Marc-Alexandre Beaulieu

This volume covers a variety of pressing themes in naming studies. Due to the
interdisciplinary nature of the field of onomastics and the critical approach advocated
by the contributors, the book is also particularly valuable for scholars in pragmatics,
human geography, and sociology.

Language in Society 47 (2018) - Johanna Warm

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.
Carole Hough, University of Glasgow, UK

From the Publisher