The term comes from the Greek, specifically from topos, which means place and from onoma, which means name. Toponymy is the discipline that studies the naming of territories. Thus, the name given to a locality or enclave (town, city or any other) is known as a toponym.
Toponymy is an auxiliary discipline of geography and history
The knowledge of the names of each place is a fact that has undoubted historical value and, on the other hand, allows us to know how the natives of a place valued their environment. Keep in mind that many place names refer to the physical characteristics of the geographic space. In this way, if a place is called Juncal or Robledal, this indicates that there were reeds or oaks in that place.
A place name normally expresses the original relationship of men and the place where they lived.
The specialists in this discipline study the diversity of place names in each territory and this analysis is known as toponymic stratigraphy. This implies that in a territory there may be very diverse designations of origin (for example, in Spain the toponymy is Arabic, Latin, Castilian, Catalan, Basque, Galician or unclassified).
A general classification
Each place name has a very particular origin. If the name of a place comes from a historical person, it is called anthroponym (for example, Washington receives this name from the first president of the United States). If the name of a place is due to an animal, it is a zoonym (for example, Cabeza de Buey or Lobos). There are also phytonyms or toponyms with plant names, as is the case with several localities called Guaco. The cosmonyms are based on the names of stars, such as the Picos de Europa. In any case, all typonyms have their own particular history.
Toponymy and gentilices
Madrileño is the name of Madrid and Montevideo is the name of Montevideo. With these two examples, we are recalling an evidence, that the gentile come from the name that a place receives.
However, there is not always a correspondence between the gentilicio and the place name (for example, the inhabitants of Medellín are paisas and the Portuguese are known as Lusos because the territory of Portugal in ancient times was called Lusitania).
Photos: Fotolia - vladystock / Jukari
