SR - Naming the region

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

On Wed, 19 Aug 1998, Jodi McMaster <jmcmaste at accd.edu> wrote:
> >Spanish LAS SIETE CIUDADES DORADAS DE C{I'}BOLA,

(By the way, some mailers don't handle accented characters.  "Da'ud
notation", as above, is more portable.)

> Is it?  It doesn't seem to take much to get a difference for
> names--and the more common usage in the US is "the lost cities of
> Gold" or "El Dorado" etc. rather than just "Cibola."  If the entry
> is the full Spanish version, there might be weasel room for those
> who really like the name--Daniel?

As one counter-example, do you think a Laurel Sovereign of Arms would
buy "Shire of Los Angeles" with the argument that the city's full name
is "Ciudad de Nuestra Se{n~}ora, la Reina de los Angeles" (the which
spelling I've doubtless mangled)?

Everyone on this list has hitherto been using just Cibola.  The cited
WWW page has just Cibola.  It's *possible* it'd pass, but I'd wager a
small sum of money it wouldn't.

> Part of the problem with period naming practices is that places were often
> named for tribes, peoples, gods, saints or famous individuals.  The first
> two don't fit our situations, the second two are problematic/prohibited and
> the last would seem to be a bucket of worms.

Oh, I dunno about that.

Saints are no problem registering: witness the College of Saint
Katherine in the West, and some other similar SCA branches.  A few
god-names were also personal names (Thor, Odin), and so come under the
following note.  Problematic?  Depends on the name, I think.

Not necessarily "famous individuals", but "individuals associated with
a particular place".  Thoresby is simply "Thor's farm", for example.
England has hundreds of examples, I'm sure, of similar humble names.
As for famous people in general: Ricardo and Ragnar would, I think, be
suitable bases for names.

> "Tierra del Calor" seems appropriate after this summer--"Tierra del Fuego"
> is a good model

Isn't "fuego" fire?  That's something you can point at; heat isn't
quite.  It's a start, but I'd like more examples of similar names.  In
my modern world atlas there are Tierra Blanca times 5, Tierra Amarilla
times 2 (what *does* Amarillo mean?  The *connotation* is "way the
hell out there", but the *denotation* doubtless differs!), and Tierra
Colorada, but all New World,

> "Cuestas de Cedros" "slopes of cedars" (and any other allergen you
> care to name) could work.

I find no names starting with "cuestas" in my modern atlas, but that's
only minor negative evidence, since that has only a small subset of
all names.  There are 3 places named Cedros, and one Cedros Bay, and
Cedro in Brazil and New Mexico, but these are all New World.

> It **appears** that in Spain there are some placenames that are just
> nouns: Leon (lion), Castile (castle), La Mancha (the stain/spot).

Huh.  Learn something new every day.

Daniel "so this day has been most of a week for me" 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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