Off the Map: The Curious History of Place Names

Nelson (The Ads That Won the War) opines that ""Cartography is 20 percent geography and science and 80 percent ignorance, myth, and greed.""He explains the many ways by which we have named geographic locations over the ages and points out the reasoning, or misunderstandings in some cases, that has given rise to such place names as ""Singapore"" (Sanskrit singa, ""lion,"" and pur, ""city"") and ""Canary Islands"" (Latin Canariae Insulae, ""isles of dogs""). Suggesting we would be better served by sticking to topographic forms like Lebanon (Hebrew l'banon, ""white mountain"") when naming a place, Nelson would hope to avoid such anomalies as English Channel, which the French, refusing to acknowledge British cartographic hegemony, label ""La Manche"" (the sleeve). The author ends his brief study with a reference to Sir Thomas More's Utopia, a term whose Greek origin means ""nowhere."" He ventures that humans would indeed have to live in a utopia, if only they are ever to call places by their right names. Instead, English speakers call Finland by its Swedish name, while Swedes use the German name for France. There is a sprinkling of errors in the text, the most egregious of which is omission of Bulgaria from a list of Balkan countries. Otherwise, this is an altogether amusing and enlightening work. (Nov.)