A Revised Typology of Place-Naming

Abstract

A functional and systematic typology of toponyms is an essential instrument for the toponymist wishing to investigate the naming practices and patterns of a region or era. To this end, the Australian National Placenames Survey developed a toponym typology for Australia (Tent & Blair 2011). This was characterized as a “typology of motivations for naming”. Although various researchers have used this typology with seeming success, further application of the typology to the survey’s database of toponyms has revealed the need for a re-evaluation of the naming process. This has occasioned a modification of some toponym categories, generating a revised typology which can be considered a “typology of expressions of the naming intention.”.