ANSTHRLD - Names for a region

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

The people running the southern Ansteorran regional newsletter would
like people to consider the list of nominated names for the region.
However, I'm completely at sea with most of them.  Can anyone please
add any more information?  (AElfwyn?  Africa?  Talan?  I fear
Tangwystyl is doubtless too busy.)

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[note to editors: text I put in square brackets, like this, are not
meant for the final article.  If I have commentary for a name, I
prefix the name with "*".

I use "Da'ud notation" for accented characters, with things like {n~},
{e'}, {ae}, and such.  Please let me know if any are unclear.

I suggest a glossary of language names, or better yet, spell them out
each time.]

PLEASE NOTE: Not every string of words is a plausible period-style
place name, and the SCA will generally register only period-style
names.  Certain patterns were done, and many others were not.  As a
general rule-of-thumb, period place names tended to be down-to-earth
- -- things like: Bradden, "broad valley"; Oxford; Kelmarsh, "marsh of
Ceol"; Thormanby, "dwelling of Thurmund"; et cetera.  (Pennsic
landmarks sort of follow the same notion: The Barn, Runestone Hill,
The Merchants' Area, the Swimming Hole, Mount Aislinn...)  When
people's names were used in place names, the given name ("first name")
was usually used rather than a surname ("last name").  In the examples
above, Ceol and Thurmund were given names.

A lot of large places were based on "land of the Xs": Angle-land,
Deutchland, Italia, Dane-mark; this is unfortunate for us, because I
know of few ways to generate a new tribal name.

DISCLAIMER: I regret that I know little of geographical naming
practices in many cultures, so I can't offer anything on many of the
names.  Aside from the fact that your favorite may be voted down, the
final favorite may not be usable!  Please, don't get your heart
utterly set on a name.

ON NAME ELEMENTS:

"Campo" et al is in a lot of proposals.  Latin "campus", "a field",
has cognates in derived Romance languages, like "campo" in Italian and
Spanish, and I think "campos" in Portuguese.  I have some period and
near-period examples in Italy and Spain and my world atlas has more
examples, so I suspect it's quite period.  The examples I found appear
concrete: "Campobasso", "low field"; "Campo Grande"; "Campo Maior";
"Campos"; "elm field" in Italian; "Campo de la Cruz", "field of the
cross", which could have had an actual cross on it.

For the Latin name "Leo" and the German "Loewe" ("lion"), we have the
following surnames derived from placenames: Leonberger, Leoweiler,
L{o"}wenbeck, L{o"}wenberg, L{o"}wenhahn, L{o"}wenich, L{o"}wenstein.
L{o"}wenberg and L{o"}wenstein are famous enough places in Germany to
be protected from conflict.


MY PERSONAL OPINIONS:

The SCA has lots of Celtic and Scandinavian names; I sometimes joke
that "SCA" stands for "Scandinavians and Celts Anonymous".  May I
please lobby for using other languages, so we can be "unique and
singular" as the Ansteorran motto says?

I would like to advocate more period spellings instead of modern ones,
if we can find out what they should be.


Name	Translation/Comments
- ----	--------------------
Caerllyw	Welsh: Lion's Fort

*Campo Estrella	Spanish: Field of Stars
[corrected: Estella should be have been Estrella, I think]
There is a Mount Estrella in Spain and Serra da Estrela in Portugal,
so this looks plausible to me.

*Campoleone	Italian: Field or Land of Lions
This is a town about 20 miles south of Rome, probably at least 12th
Century, but too small and obscure to be protected from conflict.
Therefore it's fine style and almost certain to pass.

Champs des Lions	French: Field of  the Lions

*[remove: Cibola	Spanish: Land of the Seven Cities of Gold
probable conflict with the fictional place, since it's in the
Enc. Brit.]

Cnoc Mor	Gaelic: Great Hills (Irish)
Compoazul	Spanish: Field of Blue

*Compocorazon	Spanish: Field of the Heart
I wonder about the registerability: did they really do such abstract names?

Compoleon	Spanish: Field of the Lion
Compospina	Spanish: Field of Thorns

*Corleonis	LT: Lions Heart
[what language is this?]
Don Corleone was a character in _The Godfather_; please consider if
you want such jokes.  

Cuestas de Cedros	Spanish: Cedar Slopes
Eaucach{e'}e	French: Hidden waters
*[remove: El Dorado	Spanish: Legendary city of gold
protected like Cibola]

*Estrella del Sur	Spanish: Southern Star
In period, humans were not thought to be living on stars.  This name
per se is likely returnable.  However, if a concrete noun like "Serra"
or such were added, I suspect it'd be OK.

Heimili	Old Norse: Home

*Hetjaheim	Old Norse: Hero's Home
The English ending "-ham" or "-am" is related to the ending here.
However, the examples I've seen all have a given name, like Waltham,
"home of Wealt", or sometimes a surname, like Walsingham, "home of the
Waelisings".  Without evidence, I cannot see extending the concept
to "hero"; I suspect it would be returned.

Lacsouterrain	French: Underground lake

*Land of the Southerners
Regrettably, Sutherland is a real place in (northern) Scotland!

*Las Colinas	OC: Hills
[what language?]
There is a suburb of Dallas with a name pronounced like this.

Las Colinas del Sur	OC(?):Southern Hills
*Las Tierras Altas del Sur Ansteorra	Spanish: High Lands of South Ansteorra
Leonfeld	OE: Lion Field

*Leonsteorra	OE: Lion Star
In period, humans were not thought to be living on stars.  This name
is likely returnable.

*Leontophora	GK: Lion's Land
["f" -> "ph"; more plausible transliteration]
>From an SCA name expert: "I have no idea whether the Greeks used
adjectives in this way to form place-names meaning 'land characterized
by this property'.  I'd certainly insist on getting a couple of actual
examples of the construction, preferably ones based on the local fauna
(or, next best, flora)."

Leowald	OE: Lion Wood
Levgorod	RU: City/Home of the Lions

*Lionham	English: Lion's Home
I gather that "-ham" is usually after a given name or surname.  I have
no evidence of "Lion" as an English name.

*Lion's Reach
Lion's Head is modernly a peninsula in Ireland.  I know of no English
names with "Reach" in them.

*Lionsex
Please consider the possible jokes.

*Lionsmouth	Tons of possibilities here.
"-mouth" usually means the mouth of a river.  Talan Gwynek, name stud:
"if possible at all, would probably involve postulating some folk
etymologizing of the first element at some point, which makes it a
poor candidate.  There *is* a <Linmouth> ... on the river Lyne ... so
<Linemuth> and the like is no problem ...  <Leominster> (<Leomynster>
1046, <Leominstre> 1086) contains Old English <Leon>, the old name of
a district on the Arrow and Lugg; it's found also in <Lyonshall>
... They can get the <Lyon-> element, but probably not with <mouth>."

*[remove: Lowenberg	GE: Lion Mountain
protected]

Lowenfeld
Lowenhaven	GE: Lion's Harbor, Lion's Haven
Lowenland
*[remove: Lowenstein	GE: Lion Stone
protected]

*[remove: Lowensteppes
German + Russian]

Lyonwald
New Aztlan

*Nueva C{i'}bola	Spanish: New Cibola
Cibola is the fabled Land of the Seven Cities of Gold, which was
supposed to be hereabouts.  Cibola itself would conflict, but
adding Nueva, "new", would clear it.

Our-land
Parc du Midi	French: Park of the Midi
Patria	Spanish: Homeland

*Pay des T{e^}tus	French: Land of the Stubborn
Perhaps implausible?

Pays Moteueux	French: Hill Country

*[remove: Rayon d'Espoir	French: Ray of Hope
Follows no naming pattern I've seen]

Southern Land

*Stela del Sur/Stella del Sur	Spanish: pre-1500 Southern Star
In period, humans were not thought to be living on stars.  This name
per se is likely returnable.  However, if a concrete noun like
"Serra", "Campo", or such were added, I suspect it'd be OK.

Stelazul	Spanish: pre-1500 Blue Star

*Su{dh} Ansteorra	OE: South Ansteorra
[added a space]
"South Ansteorra" itself is a registerable name; I suspect 

Su{dh}cynn	OE: South folks/south people
*[remove: Sudcielo	Spanish: Southern Sky
Follows no naming pattern I've seen]

*Sunsteor	OE: Southern Ansteorrans
This slurred version of Su{dh}Ansteorrans is unlikely to be period style.

Terra Leone	LT: Land of the Lions
Theas Fearann	Gaelic: Southern Lands (Irish)
Thornwald	OE: Field of Thorns
Tierra de los Suranos	Spanish: Land of the Southerners
Tierra del Calor 	Spanish: Land of Heat (?)

*[remove: Tierra del Fuego	Spanish: Land of Fire
conflict]

Tierra del Sur	Spanish: Land of the South.
Tierras Altas 	Spanish:
Torres Altos	Spanish: High towers
*[remove: Vasilopes	GK: Son of a king
Follows no place naming practices I've seen.]

Daniel de Lincolia
- -- 
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; 
if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com is my work address.
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