Names

Abstract

Real names, both for places and persons, arc pivotal in many legends. Colloquial or familiar names, and their popular meaning or association, have an important role in Australian folklore, even though many possess what may be deemed a limited historical or regional/familial currency. This whole general field of study, onomastics, has in folkloric forms the customary two divisions - names of places, and periphrases, nicknames or popular labels for (groups of) people. Most of Australia's European-style place names or toponyms are in some degree 'signposts to the past', each containing one or all of the following types of information: geographic/topographic description; historical association in mind of the often unknown namer; or some linguistic/ethnic detail, if a name should be in form Irish, Gaelic (e.g. Inverell = 'river confluence - swans'), or from any language other than English. Aboriginal place names are equally pointers to past thought, although an actual associated incident may be impossible to retrieve now, and so they will seem more purely descriptive if a plausible etymology can be arrived at (see J. S. Ryan, 'Papers on Australian Place-Names', 1963).