What's in a name?

Primitive peoples around the world have long known of the magic that
resides in labels. The very notion of language hinges on this crucial
understanding. No one today would know of primitive or ancient
peoples without this fundamental truth. There would be no
history....and no one to care about the omission.

But, language we have, and language with a wealth of nouns, without
which, of course, it wouldn't do anyone any good at all. What use a
description of what occurred without a means of conveying to whom or
what it happened, or where, or when? Or of who or what caused it to
happen? For that matter, whatever it was that happened constitutes an
event of sorts, and describing an event (a "thing" after all) would be
as impossible as useless. Without nouns (names) all one would have to
work with would be verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and a
few other random bits and pieces. Pronouns (those shady little
things.....nouns if mufti, if you please) couldn't exist without some
sort of useful referent. And adjectives, while perhaps pretty in
their own right, would quickly fade out of favor (and existence)
without anything to stick to.

Names, we see, are important. But they are important for more than
their mere existence. There are other criteria that matter. Variety,
for example, matters a great deal. In a world full people, things,
places, activities, states of being and whatnot all, what could have
been a rousing campfire story would still inevitably fail if
everybody, every place, and every thing in it were called, Bob, for
instance: "Yeah, old Bob over at Bob fell into a deep Bob of Bob and
lost a couple of Bobs trying to crawl out over the Bob-sharp bobs."
One senses that an inherent latent interest might lurk somewhere in
there.....but only because one has a ready stock of suitable nouns
that one could substitute for all the Bobs bobbing about. Without
that stock no one would ever guess that it was even a story.....let
alone be able to offer a reasonable interpretation or critique.

So, variety is a must. But we're still not finished. Yes, it's good
to have enough names to go around, and yes, we understand
(intuitively....there's no need to go into the matter at great length)
that a certain amount of overlap is admissible.....even desirable in
some instances. Thus, there can me more than one "rock", and we are
probably all willing enough to concede that rock can have more than
one meaning. It may even be another genus of word (a verb, or an
adjective, say) without risking the destruction of the known
universe. But a noun qua noun must be the RIGHT noun.....the proper
NAME of the thing.....or it is no good at all.

All of which is interesting enough but....so what?

Well, that last bit about the right name brings us back from an
admitted digression (well, not really.....more of an
introduction.....but, that rapidly becoming a lost art in these latter
days, one likes to take a shot at in now and then in the probably vain
hope of.....well, never mind about that for right now) to the point
raised in the opening sentence.

There is power in names. Not only the mundane power of lexical
coherence, but often a deeper, greater and more awful power. We all
know it. We've all seen it in action.....from earliest childhood
right on through this morning. There are names so laden with power
and mystery that they dare not be spoken except by properly trained
initiates in arcane arts and sciences. Names that the wider populace
may not even be allowed to know, let alone utter, for to allow it
WOULD bring the universe as we know it to an abrupt end. Well, that
last bit MAY not be literally true, but the stakes being decidedly
near the high end of the scale, why risk it? In any case, the
possibility of hyperbole notwithstanding, it is clear that some names
of people and places and things are, for good or ill, imbued with (or
naturally steeped in) more power than others. Anyone who thinks
otherwise has never gone from a speaking engagement before an
assemblage of Amish Elders to one hosted and attended by Chicago
longshoremen.....and told the same jokes.

Naturally, it follows that the naming of things comes with an awesome
(if often unrecognized) power.....and responsibility. And THAT (at
long last, some might say) brings us to the point of this whole
rumination.

Who gets to name stuff.....and how.....and why? Granted that there's
literally a whole world (and then some) literally FULL of stuff and
places that have already been named, so the job is pretty much done
(however well or poorly) but there's still new stuff and people coming
along all the time and still new names needed. Yes, we can.....and
do.....recycle many names, but even that requires some reflection and
presumably some qualifications, and entirely new stuff sometimes
requires entirely new names.

Well, the really new stuff probably requires the services of folks who
specialize in the widgets or whatever under consideration, so we'll
leave that to them.....despite the recent amusing flap over the iPad.
But what about all the other stuff?

"Farmer Bob's south forty" worked not only well enough, but
exquisitely, throughout the tenure of several generations of Bobs, Bob
juniors and seniors and Bob the thirds, but last year it got
subdivided. Twelve new streets.....and they all gotta have names.

Who gets that job.....and why does it ALWAYS go to someone who is
blithely unaware of.....or indifferent to.....the distinction between
say, a prairie and an ocean.....or a whispering pine and a
powerplant? O.k., well, not QUITE always.

Monroe county (presumably named in honor of an American president of
roughly a couple centuries ago), Curdistan, is a roughly square county
of roughly average size (that is, for Cheeselandia.....and thus for
the eastern U.S. in general), occupying a space in the left center
(more or less) of the state. Like counties everywhere in the country,
it has numerous roads lumped into several categories.....Interstate
and U.S. and state highways, county and township roads, municipal
streets, avenues, lanes, boulevards, ways, circles, etc., etc. As is
true in the rest of the country, the Interstate and U.S. highways
enjoy more or less tightly regulated numerical names, sometimes
augmented (at least in the latter) by designation (whether formally or
otherwise) as the something or other "memorial highway." This also
true of state highways here. All three might also have some other
name assigned to them near and/or within the confines of large
conurban areas.....thus, for example, the "Eisenhower" expressway in
Chicago. County roads here get simple alphabetic letter
designations. Strikes many people from other places as odd, but it is
a simple and serviceable method. If there's more than twenty county
highways?. Well, then you pick up after Cty. Z with AA, AB....or
BB.....or whatever two letter combination. What IS a bit odd is that
there are a good few THREE letter county highways in the state. No
idea why that is.

City streets are a bewildering cesspit of inscrutability. I won't
touch that.

And then there's the township roads. Outside the cities, outside the
suburbs, outside even the villages. These are roads whose care and
upkeep is presumably the responsibility of the various townships (six
mile squares.....usually) that subdivide the various counties into
manageable units. I have no idea who is responsible for naming roads
at the township level.....or for pretty much anything else at that
level, for that matter. I get the distinct impression that pretty
much no one else does either. Things just sort of get done.....or
not. In any case, generally speaking, township road names tend to
reflect the characteristics and interests and heritage of the land and
its occupants. Beaver dam road pretty much speaks for itself, as does
Olafsen lane. The township, the county, the state, and the nation are
all littered (although not exclusively) with such sensible names. And
we have such names here in Monroe county.....a few of
them......but......

But here in Monroe county, somewhere, at some time or other, someone
operating at the level of countywide or higher authority took it upon
him or herself to name the township roads (or most of them, anyway)
according to scheme unique in my experience or that of anyone else
I've talked to about the matter. In doing so, he or she has
implicitly recognized (and more or less bowed to) the power in
names.....and simultaneously robbed those here in Monroe of any power
that would naturally have adhered to them, leaving only a modicum of
organizational value in its stead.

Anyone interested can find the rest of the puzzle he

http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/travel/...ies/monroe.pdf

giles
remember, we read from left to right, top to bottom.

On Jan 31, 1:29*pm, Giles wrote:

[snip of interesting observations on the power of names]

But here in Monroe county, somewhere, at some time or other, someone
operating at the level of countywide or higher authority took it upon
him or herself to name the township roads (or most of them, anyway)
according to scheme unique in my experience or that of anyone else
I've talked to about the matter. *In doing so, he or she has
implicitly recognized (and more or less bowed to) the power in
names.....and simultaneously robbed those here in Monroe of any power
that would naturally have adhered to them, leaving only a modicum of
organizational value in its stead.

Anyone interested can find the rest of the puzzle he

http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/travel/...ies/monroe.pdf

giles
remember, we read from left to right, top to bottom. * *

Speaking as someone who has more than once been accused of being
anal-retentive and obsessive-compulsive, and whose entire professional
career (cataloging) could be considered to be founded on those two
traits:

That's just insane. What sort of twisted mind came up with that
scheme, and even worse, who agreed and said that it was a good idea?


Chuck Vance (and worst of all, who was given the task of
actually choosing and assigning those names?)

On Feb 2, 10:24*am, Conan The Librarian wrote:

* *Speaking as someone who has more than once been accused of being
anal-retentive and obsessive-compulsive, and whose entire professional
career (cataloging) could be considered to be founded on those two
traits:

Hm.....

Well, if a "career" (presumably paid) based on those traits merits
accusations......then what are we to make of those who do this sort of
**** for its entertainment value?

* *That's just insane. *What sort of twisted mind came up with that
scheme, and even worse, who agreed and said that it was a good idea?

A bit of subsequent research (a very small bit) reveals that its been
before......or since.....at any rate, in other places. Denver dabbled
in it, among others. I know a neighborhood in South Milwaukee (an
incorporated city in its own right, not just a part of The City) where
it was done on a very small scale.

But your question is a good one.....and one that would likely take a
good deal more ferreting than Google is up to. In fact, one of the
more intriguing insights available here is that The Information
Highway is really more potholes than pavement. The answers easily
found are those that EVERYBODY wants......which is to say, mostly
useless.....and even less interesting.

* * * Chuck Vance (and worst of all, who was given the task of
actually choosing and assigning those names?)

Truly a worthy cause for a genuine scholar, I think. A mystery
steeped in history, lexicography, politics, personal narrative,
psychology......all with a liberal application (one presumes) of brute
force and ignorance.

Or maybe it was all done in good humor......and nobody gave a rat's
ass.....or understood.

giles