[ganong] PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF NEW BRUNSWICK 177 



PAET 1. 



An Essay Towards an Understanding of the Principles of Place- 

 nomenclature. 



The plîicc-nomenclature of any given region is the product of an 

 evolution which is the resultant of the operation of many causes, which 

 fall into two divisions of supreme importance. First, there are the prin- 

 ciples which control the giving, changing and persisting of names in 

 general ; these are not written, nor even, as a rule, consciously recognized, 

 but are the result of the mode of working of the human mind ; in other 

 words, they are psychological. They differ somewhat in different races, 

 and especially with different grades or kinds of civilization, but in the 

 main they are everywhere the same. Their influence may be compared 

 with that of heredity in the evolution of organisms. Secondly, there is 

 the actual history or .sequence of movements and events in the discovery, 

 exploration, settlement and subsequent progress of the given region, all 

 influenced strongl}^ by its physiography, and applicable, of course, to 

 that particular region alone. Its influence is comparable to that of en- 

 vironment in organic evolution. As in an organism, heredity gives the 

 groundwork, leaving environment to mould the exact details of form, so 

 in place-nomenclature the psj'chological composition of the race-mind de- 

 termines liow names shall arise and grow, while the history of the par- 

 ticular place supplies their exact form. It is well to examine apart these 

 two phases of the subject, since the first is of very wide application, 

 while the second belongs in the present work to New Jirunswick alone. 



To examine the general principles more exactl}^, it i^ convenient to 

 inquire into, first, those qualities of place-names which give them their 

 character; second, how they arise, alter, persist or die out; third, how 

 they may best be investigated. 



1. On the Qualities of Places Names. 



Names of places, or of anything else, are primarily mere symbols — 

 conveniences for connecting, through the medium of sound, material 

 objects with mental impressions. Their use depends entirely upon that 

 co-operation of sound-perception and memory by which a certain sound, 

 or set of sounds, can come to recall unconsciously an image of an associ- 

 ated object before the mind ; and it is not in the least necessary that there 

 shall be any relation or connection between sound and object other than 

 that of habitual association. This is very plain in the case of the most 

 important of all names, those of people. Nor for convenience in their 



