Nicknames of Places: Origins and Meanings of the Alternate and Secondary Names, Sobriquets, Titles, Epithets and Slogans for 4600 Places Worldwide - Hardcover

Room, Adrian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786424974 ISBN 13: 9780786424979

Publisher: McFarland Publishing, 2006

Synopsis

Many places in the world, from the smallest settlement to the largest expanse of land or water, have a secondary name. This new dictionary is devoted to over 4,500 such names. What is a secondary placename? For the purposes of this book, it is a name, nickname, title, or slogan by which a place is known in addition to its formal or usual name. Such a name is rarely if ever found on maps or in gazetteers, although it features widely in travel guides, journalistic articles, and literature of all kinds. Consider New York City. In addition to the Big Apple, arguably its most recognizable nickname, the city has been known by a number of other secondary names—Baghdad on the Hudson, City of Ambition, Empire City, Gateway of the USA, Gotham, Noo Yawk, and simply NYC. The Dictionary entries are arranged alphabetically by secondary name and include the place’s real name, its location, and an explanation of the secondary name with one or more quotations documenting its use.

About this title

About the Author

A noted toponymist and onomastician, Adrian Room is the author of over 40 reference books, including Placenames of France (2004), Dictionary of Pseudonyms (2003), A Dictionary of Music Titles and A Dictionary of Art Titles (2000). He also compiled African Placenames (1994). He lives in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England.

From Booklist

When a Washington Post columnist sponsored a contest to nominate a U.S. locality as the "Armpit of America," he received hundreds of entries. Although the winner of the undistinguished sobriquet (Battle Mountain, Nevada) is not listed in this fascinating volume, this reference work does include the City of Dreadful Night (Calcutta), Hell with the Lid Off (Pittsburgh), and the Land of Death and Chains (Siberia). Compiled by Room, the preeminent scholar of geographical place-names, the book contains more than 4,500 entries alphabetically arranged by nickname, followed by the actual name of the place and a brief annotation. An outstanding feature: many entries contain quotations of the first or early use of the sobriquet, including the source and date. "City of Dreadful Night," for example, was first used to describe Calcutta by Rudyard Kipling, and he borrowed it from a James Thomson poem.

The volume has seven appendixes covering nicknames of regions (for example, Dust Bowl, Bible Belt); nicknames of roads and streets; Roman names of European towns and cities; and nicknames of stars and planets, among other topics. A fun book to browse; it's surprising to learn about the pervasive influence of jazz musicians on American geographical nicknames. An outstanding and unique ready-reference work, this volume is a superb source for hard-to-find information. Highly recommended, especially for the trivia shelf. Donald Altschiller
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: McFarland Publishing
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0786424974
• ISBN 13: 9780786424979
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 357