Why don't given names vary more per region? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by _number8_@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

like town names are very unique; you probably couldn't find the same 2 towns next to each other very often

but mark steve chris hannah claire laura etc are all very common across the anglosphere

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

It's a bunch of factors. Other posters highlighted some. Others are:

You're far more likely to name a person after another than a town after another. (Exceptions happen, I know.)
Identical personal names for people can be disambiguated with patronymics and surnames, but usually there isn't much of that for towns, except maybe "in [insert the name of the country controlling that city]".
At least in Abrahamic religions, the name also plays a role to highlight that the person is supposed to follow that religion.
Names follow trends, People tend to die rather quickly, so you don't see often the "old" trends. In the meantime that town might follow some town-naming trend from 300y ago.

[-] lol3droflxp@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Regarding point 1, in New England at least you can visit half of Europe within a few hours of driving if you go by town names.

[-] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Yup, there are exceptions, like placenames named after other placenames, even in the old world. (Cartagena being named after Carthago, England [indirectly] after Anglia, even Byzantium was shortly called Roma Nova by Constantine.) Even then, those are more like exceptions, not the rule.

this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023

61 points (93.0% liked)

Asklemmy

43855 readers

1668 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS