From: benlizro@ihug.co.nz   
      
   Who?   
   A big name in toponymy/toponymics/toponomastics, at least in the UK.   
   Founded English Place-Name Society (1923), which promoted a   
   county-by-county survey of place names of England.   
   The "new" toponymics seems to involve applying to place names the same   
   criteria we apply to etymologies in general, rather than just retailing   
   local folklore.   
      
   "...it is impossible to place any satisfactory interpretation upon the   
   history of a name until we have traced it as far back as the records   
   will allow....in many cases, unless the records go a good way back,   
   speculations upon its meaning are worse than useless." (Mawer, quoted by   
   Crystal)   
      
   I recently responded to a query from someone in the USA, in a state a   
   long way from the Pacific, about a local place name said to be of   
   Polynesian origin (and said to have a certain meaning). The origins of   
   the name turn out to go back less than 50 years -- if they are not   
   completely made up (by persons still living) they go back to garbled   
   recollections of something someone remembered the locals saying on a   
   Hawaiian vacation. Of such are place name etymologies in utero, I would say.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)