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The Place-Names Of America


John Nelson lately noticed that navigable passages betwixt mountains inwards the USA bring lots of dissimilar names. Some are called passes, others are called gaps together with some are fifty-fifty called notches, or saddles. Being a cartographer John wondered whether in that location could hold upwards whatever regional variation inwards the utilisation of these names for navigable valleys. He thus mapped out where these place-names are used inwards the USA together with released the results inwards the Gap, Pass, Notch together with Saddle floor map.

To test the regional variations inwards the words given to navigable valleys inwards the USA Nelson downloaded together with mapped every named house from the U.S. Board of Geographic Names. The effect is a fascinating map of 2.3 1000000 place-names inwards America. As y'all scroll through the Gap, Pass, Notch together with Saddle floor map y'all are shown how place-names inwards the USA concentrate where humans settle along coastlines, along shipping routes together with inwards major conurbations.

As y'all progress farther though the Gap, Pass, Notch together with Saddle floor map the non-valley place-names are removed from the map. The dissimilar navigable passage place-names are so each given a dissimilar color. The effect is a map which reveals the regional variations inwards how these passages are named throughout the USA.


If y'all are interested inwards carrying out your ain toponym query John has included a link to download the huge place-name database from the U.S. Board of Geographic Names. Alternatively y'all could hold upwards lazy together with play amongst Places! instead.

Places! allows y'all to map the relative density of place-names inwards dissimilar countries roughly the world. Using the application y'all tin forcefulness out movement into place-name prefixes or suffixes together with persuasion a map showing the geographic distribution of place-names containing those terms.

For example, inwards the USA nosotros tin forcefulness out movement into the prefix of -Las to encounter where towns together with cities bring names starting amongst the Castilian give-and-take for 'the'. In the Great Britain nosotros tin forcefulness out persuasion where place-names include the suffixes -thorpe together with -thwaite to encounter where the Vikings settled inwards Great Britain (the resulting map shows that these 2 place-name endings are pop throughout the expanse that was ane time known equally the Danelaw, next the Viking invasions of the 9th century).

The Places! application uses OpenStreetMap for the place-name data. The application includes a let on of options which permit y'all to conform the size of map, circle points together with an 'advanced' choice which allows y'all to deport out 'regular expression' searches.

You tin forcefulness out bring hours of fun amongst Places! For instance inwards the USA if y'all are interested inwards where Castilian plays a large operate inwards local place-names y'all could likewise search for the distribution of the San- or Santa- prefixes. On the other paw the suffix -ville mightiness hold upwards a adept indication of where French immigrants originally settled inwards the USA.