917.3003 S849a

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917.3003 S849a
Susan Metz Library 150 Dewey 900s
Photograph of signposts on U.S. 40, from another
of George Stewarts books, Names on the Land
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Citation

• Stewart, George Rippey, 1895-1980
• American place-names a concise and selective
  dictionary for the continental United States of
  America / George R. Stewart. New York Oxford
  University Press, 1985, c1970.
• xl, 550 p. 21 cm. (Oxford paperback
  reference)
• Bibliography p. xxxiv-xl.
• ISBN 0195037251 (pbk.)
• 1. Names, GeographicalUnited
  StatesDictionaries
• 2. United StatesHistory, LocalDictionaries I.
  Title

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Arrangement
Names AZ
Dictionary arrangementno indexing. Entries are
arranged by their less-common element (i.e., by
Rainier, not Mount). Locations identified
further by Zip code.
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Scope

• A selective work
• Focussed on names, rather than places
• Includes names of well-known places
  (Philadelphia), repeated names (Big or Lost), and
  unusual names (non-English names, including
  Native American names Kokomo coined names
  Snicktaw mistake names Nome and names of
  unusual or provocative suggestion Bloody,
  Christmas
• Omits many names derived from personal names
  obsolete names names of very minor places,
  obviously obvious names (Highest Lake)
  Hawaiian names
• Meant to be different in focus than history,
  geography, folklore, or linguistics. Especially,
  focussed on name-giving rather than etymologythe
  motivation of the namer rather than the
  linguistic meaning of the name
• 12,000 entries names of natural and
  human-created places, with meaning and
  derivation, often identifying the person claiming
  responsibility for naming and the date and
  occasion of name-giving

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Currency

• CurrentStewart did very good research. He
  mentions the need for more on Native American
  names I found a book on Native American Place
  Names of Massachusetts, but nothing nationwide.
• More recent descriptive sources seem to skim off
  the funny-sounding names or stick to single
  states, without giving much general information
  on naming or a comprehensive U.S. list.
• Some online and print sources include exhaustive
  lists of names, but theyre basically atlases or
  gazetteers, without history of naming.

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Purposes

• Meant for the general public
• For historians and history buffs
• For historical societies
• For geneologists
• For word-lovers

Distribution of burg (Northeastern states), from
Names on the Land
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Format Paper only
Special feature introductory material on
place-naming and types of names
Special feature bibliography
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Author
George R. Stewart made his academic career for
forty years on the Berkeley campus. To get to
it, he and his wife Ted drove in a Model T Ford
on a camping honeymoon that foreshadowed his
future interest in tracing pioneer trails to the
Pacific. The extraordinary range of Stewart's
mind and the wide diversity of his academic
subjects are indicated by the subjects he taught
during his long career, for they include Chaucer
and Stephen Crane, the metrical techniques of
English verse, the writing of fictionHe issued
twenty-four books of nonfiction, including
biographies and historical studies seven novels,
whose settings ranged from classic Greece to
19th-century California and twelve volumes of
edited texts with full introductions. from
Stewarts obituary in the UC archives
Photo of George Rippey Stewart from
http//www.route40.net/history/whos-who/george-ste
wart.shtml
A partial Stewart bibliography
http//www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/George_R
_Stewart.htm
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Reviews

• An instant classic. The New Republic
• A story to marvel at and rejoice... The
  dictionary offers a ready means of
  self-identification and pride of heritage and
  provides a vast literary tour as well. New York
  Times Book Review
• An irresistible book. . . . Packed with wit and
  scholarship ... it serves equally well for
  reading, reference, and the planning of imaginary
  journeys. The Boston Globe

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My impression

• I like this quite a bitId like to own this and
  Names on the Land both
• Very well-written, with obvious knowledge and
  enthusiasm
• The author says that it may be the last of the
  single-author dictionaries, not reduced to a
  mechanical conformitymayeven display a touch of
  personal vagary. I like this.

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Reference uses

• Where did King of Prussia, PA, get its name?
• from an inn sign representing King Frederick I,
  the owner in Colonial times being a native of
  Prussia
• Is Tacoma an Indian name? What does it mean?
• In WA the name appeared in Theodore Winthrops
  The Canoe and the Saddle (1863) where it is
  applied to what is now Mount Rainier, and said to
  be a generic term applied to all snow peaks.
  Winthrop probably rendered the word more euphonic
  than the Indian term would have been, and thus
  made a more precise interpretation very
  difficult. It has been translated as the
  mountain, and the gods, and and by various
  other terms. The lake in Maine is probably
  from an Algonquin word the Texas town was
  borrowed from Washington.
• How was Nome, AK, named?
• On a chart prepared for a survey conducted by
  the British ship Herald the notation ? name was
  placed near a certain cape in AK this was taken
  by a second draughtsman to be the name itself,
  and he put it as Cape Name the a being
  indistinct, the final copy came out as Cape Nome.
  In TX and ND the name is derived from that in
  AK.

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Answers on Web

• Where did King of Prussia, PA, get its name?
• Search on named King of Prussia? Wikipedia The
  town got its name in the 18th century from a
  local tavern which was named King of Prussia in
  honour of Frederick the Great. More from local
  Pennsylvania sites some disagreement on whether
  name was just to attract German drinkers.
• Is Tacoma an Indian name? What does it mean?
• Search on place-name Tacoma? the Tacoma Public
  Library site, database on Washington place names
  In 1868 the present name, taken from Theodore
  Winthrop's book The Canoe and the Saddle, was
  suggested by Philip Ritz, a Northern Pacific
  Railway official. The name was adopted through
  the influence of Gen. Morton Matthew McCarver,
  who is considered the father of Tacoma. The name
  resembles many of the Indian names that were
  given to the site before the first settlers
  arrived. (Meany p. 300).
• How was Nome, AK, named?
• Nome named Alaska eventually? city of Nome
  site Nome was named as a result of a 50
  year-old spelling error. In the 1850's an officer
  on a British ship off the coast of Alaska noted
  on a manuscript map that a nearby prominent point
  was not identified. He wrote "? Name" next to the
  point. When the map was recopied, another
  draftsman thought that the ? was a C and that the
  a in "Name" was an o, and thus a map-maker in the
  British Admiralty christened "Cape Nome."