From: no_email@invalid.invalid   
      
   Ross Clark  wrote:   
   > 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)   
      
   Could that be the guy who found out that a certain Woodhill was in fact   
   Wolfdale?   
      
      
   >   
   > 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.   
   >   
      
   How quaint.   
      
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