Toponyms

Toponym means a place name. Sometimes a place name can reveal who named it, how old the name is, and its original meaning. Some original names for places are quite descriptive, and give a lot of information if you know the language. Others are named for people, often when a previously-named place was claimed by new colonizers. Coining or changing a place name is the most blatant form of marking one's territory, after all. Dr. Erica Brozovsky looks into how places are named and why, plus a lot of interesting trivia like the longest and shortest place names, and a few wild stories about toponyms for the PBS series Otherwords. (via Laughing Squid)