It not so silly when you think of it.

You know when you come across a river's name, or a town, or heck, a part of the state of New York (Long Island I believe they call it). You sometimes wonder who came up with the not-so brilliant name of Fish Creek (I don't remember where, but I have seen one called this), the town of Two Hills, or as I said, the island of Long Island. Seriously, who thought up these names? Did the people not have anyone inspiring or wealthy enough to name it after? Was there no place back home across the Atlantic that they missed enough to name it after? These names just get silly right?

Wrong. When you actually think about it, naming things on one of their most basic characteristics is not such a silly concept. Those names that we use nowadays, some cool sounding word whose only meaning is the place that we call it, I'll use the word canada as an example. Sure most people know that Canada is a county, but really, what did they name it after? What or who is a canada? Well my ever so helpful friend, wikipedia, has the answer. I quote: The name of Canada has been in use since the earliest European settlement in Canada, with the name originating from a First Nations word kanata (or canada) for "settlement", "village", or "land". So really, the cool word (yes its cool!) is just the Indian word for town. That would sure sound cool wouldn't it? Just imagine telling all the Americans that you meet that you are from Town. That would make sense eh? Or just think of our national anthem: "Oh Town! Our true, north, strong and free!" Great classic that.

So really, any name of a place that sounds cool (and for the purpose of this discourse isn't named after a person) is really just as silly sounding as Fish creek, just in another language, with a suitable amount of time applied to make it seem different. Why, five hundred years down the road, Long Island won't sound like an island that is long, but will rather be a meaningful name of an island. All those multi syllable locations in Europe are an especially good example. I'll bet that the folks who speak the native languages there can even make a good guess as to what they mean.

So naming places after a chief characteristic is not a silly concept at all, but rather the established way of doing things. It’s just weird because it’s in English. I mean the language English, as we know it today, didn't get to name anything until the new world was discovered. All the old English stuff had been named already in such an old form of English so as to make it near impossible to all but Tolkienesk people to understand what it means. Then, 500-1000 years later, new land is discovered, and new places finally get to be named. The usual method is used, it just sounds weird because no one has ever named a place in modern English. At least that’s my opinion. I could be wrong. But it does kind of make sense though, right?

Heh, and if you need any more examples, why the very planet is named after a characteristic. Earth. I’ll maybe later go into my thoughts on lack of new places.