Editing Toponymy (section)

==History==
{{Globalize|date=August 2023}}
Probably the first toponymists were the storytellers and poets who explained the origin of specific place names as part of their tales; sometimes place-names served as the basis for their [[etiology|etiological]] legends. The process of [[folk etymology]] usually took over, whereby a false meaning was extracted from a name based on its structure or sounds. Thus, for example, the toponym of [[Hellespont]] was explained by Greek poets as being named after [[Helle (mythology)|Helle]], daughter of [[Athamas]], who drowned there as she crossed it with her brother [[Phrixus]] on a flying golden ram. The name, however, is probably derived from an older language, such as [[Pelasgian]], which was unknown to those who explained its origin. In his ''Names on the Globe'', [[George R. Stewart]] theorizes that ''Hellespont'' originally meant something like 'narrow Pontus' or 'entrance to Pontus', ''[[Pontus (region)|Pontus]]'' being an ancient name for the region around the [[Black Sea]], and by extension, for the sea itself.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stewart |first=George Rippey |date=7 August 1975 |title=Names on the Globe |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-501895-0 |edition=1st |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/namesonglobe0000stew }}</ref>

Especially in the 19th century, the age of exploration, a lot of toponyms got a different name because of national pride. Thus the famous German cartographer [[August Heinrich Petermann|Petermann]] thought that the naming of newly discovered physical features was one of the privileges of a map-editor, especially as he was fed up with forever encountering toponyms like 'Victoria', 'Wellington', 'Smith', 'Jones', etc. He writes: "While constructing the new map to specify the detailed topographical portrayal and after consulting with and authorization of messr. [[Theodor von Heuglin]] and count [[:de:Karl Graf von Waldburg-Zeil|Karl Graf von Waldburg-Zeil]] I have entered 118 names in the map: partly they are the names derived from celebrities of arctic explorations and discoveries, arctic travellers anyway as well as excellent friends, patrons, and participants of different nationalities in the newest northpolar expeditions, partly eminent German travellers in Africa, Australia, America ...".<ref>Koldewey, K. (1871. Die erste Deutsche Nordpolar-Expedition im Jahre 1868. In: ''Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen, Ergäzungsband VI'', p. 182.</ref>

Toponyms may have different names through time, due to changes and developments in languages, political developments and border adjustments to name but a few. More recently many postcolonial countries revert to their own nomenclature for toponyms that have been named by colonial powers.<ref name="Toponymy"/>