SR - Naming the region

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

On Wed, 19 Aug 1998, AElfwyn / Jodi McMaster wrote:
> Moriel wrote:
> > What would the Spanish translation of "Southern Star" be?  Just an idea...
> > 
> "Estrella del Sur," I think.

I am quite boggled to find the following in the index of the National
Geographic _Atlas of the World_, 1981.  "Quite boggled" because I
wouldn't have expected a name based on "star" in a geographical name
-- it seemed far too fanciful to me.  Evidence {u"}ber alles; a bas
les prejudices!  (But I wonder if there's "false etymology" here:
maybe the true derivation merely looks starry.  For example, Old Norse
Stari is the word for "starling" and had a different derivation than
"star".)  Anyway:

    Serra da Estrela (Portugal)
    Estrela do Norta (Brazil)
    Estr{e^}la do Sul (Brazil)  [!]
    Estrella, mountain (Spain)
    Punta Estrella (Mexico)

Since I know essentially no Spanish or Portuguese, I can't say what
these might mean; I don't even know if "Estrella" is "star" or not.
Confirmation?

There is no conflict by translation, but "Estr{e^}la do Sul" might be
aurally too close to "Estrella del Sur" -- anyone know how they are
pronounced?

Caveats and avenues for futher research:

- what are the derivations?  Any other known patterns, like in
surnames?  There are Italian "campo"-based surnames that don't appear
in my atlas, for example.

- major caveat: are these names period or way post-period?  Mount
Estrella would be the best-looking place to start, it being in Spain
after all, and mountains don't get formed like, say, new towns.  It's
on a direct line between Madrid and Grenada, about 75 miles north of
the latter, in the Sierra Morena.  Seeing "Sierra" reminds me that it
means "mountains", I think ("Sierra Nevada", e.g.), so the Portuguese
name above should mean the same thing and also be researchable.  It's
a mountain range slanting SW-NE in the middle of Portugal.

- are any of these names in standard sources, and hence protected from
conflict in registration?

- similar names in other languages?  Practices in one language don't
necessarily happen in any other, but it increases the odds.  I just
noticed that "Sterre" is both a Middle English nickname *and* given
name, and Reaney & Wilson derive it from "star".  Boggle squared!  R&W
mention Old Norse Stjarna, a nickname, and apparently meaning "star";
Geirr Bassi, an SCA standard Norse source, agrees.  Given that
surnames were used in location names in English, I would expect Sterre
+ hill, dale, ... to be possible name patterns.  (Frankly, I'd prefer
Spanish, Italian, Greek, or almost *anything* rather than the
SCA-usual English, Norse, and Celtic.  However, that's my own
preferences speaking!)

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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