ETYMOLOGICAL VARIABILITY OF THE HISPANIC DOUBLET PLACE NAMES IN THE USA

Abstract

For example, of 8 Alamo cities (in the states of California, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas), only a few owe their name to poplars growing nearby (“álamo” is Spanish for “poplar”). The origin of 6 Alto cities names (in California, George, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana, New Mexico, Arizona, Louisiana) is also multivariative. Alto is Spanish for “tall/high”. And it seems quite logical that this might be a way to call a city located on a hill. But the results of the study confirm this only partially. Buena Vista is translated from Spanish as “beautiful view”. This place name acquired the descriptive meaning in the states of California, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Texas. But, however, it should be noted that the majority of Buena Vista oikonyms (for example, in Oregon, Georgia, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey) refers to the victory of General Zachary Taylor at the Battle of Buena Vista, state Coahuila, Mexico, during the Mexican-American war, February 23, 1847. 4 cities of Ramona (Oklahoma, California, Kansas, South Dakota), despite completely different origin stories, are called so due to the Spanish woman's name. One can see other place name doublets present in different parts of the US. Having multivariative origin, they confirm the tendency.