CLOG (Univ. of Glasgow)

Cuthbertson, Katherin

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Cuthbertson
perspective. For instance, in the essay on Biblical place-names, names as varied 
as Mount Pisgah (Stonehouse Parish), Jacob’s Well (Uddingston) and Hell’s Glen 
(Argyll) (pp. 49–51) are discussed under the label ‘Scripture names’. Although 
the re-analysis of Celtic and Norse names which originally had nothing to do 
with the Bible is addressed (p. 52), a modern name scholar would undoubtedly 
analyse the very different contexts in which such names were coined and include 
a discussion on the validity of labelling place-names such as the Deil’s Beef Tub (p. 
50) a ‘Scripture name’. In some of the areas, particularly the Isle of Skye, Robertson 
has frequently provided his interpretation of place-names of Norse origin with 
varying efficiency. Here he followed contemporary scholars such as Watson in 
often simply providing his translation of the name with no further explanation 
of its etymology and analysis. This is especially problematic considering the often 
complex nature of Old Norse place-names in Western Scotland. They generally 
only survive through a lens of Gaelic, often requiring careful and lengthy analysis. 
However, alternative explanations are occasionally provided when he found the 
etymology to be especially uncertain, as in Eilean Trodday: ‘“E[ilean] Throdaidh” 
[Norse] Thrond’s Isle (or pasture trödh isle)’ (p. 197).
There can be no doubt of the profound value of this book as a resource for 
scholars in several fields, including toponomastics, oral culture and linguistics. 
King’s acknowledgement that ‘many of the forms from [Robertson’s] notebooks 
have dictated Gaelic place-name forms of bilingual road and train station signs 
across Scotland’ (p. xi) speaks for itself. The careful editing makes an important 
resource more accessible to scholars. Although the source material cannot be 
approached as a work following the standards of current onomastic scholarship, 
particularly with regards to etymological analysis and methodology, this 
publication undoubtedly provides an excellent resource for Gaelic pronunciations 
and folklore. It will ensure the appropriate recognition of Robertson’s work in the 
years to come.
Sofia Evemalm, University of Glasgow
Guy Puzey and Laura Kostanski (eds.), Names and Naming: People, places, 
perceptions and power (Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2016), 258 pp. ISBN 
9781783094905
In its introduction, Names and Naming: People, Places, Perceptions and Power states 
that the volume ‘seeks to contribute to the growing field of critical onomastic 
theory’ and highlights the drive towards critically analysing names in a social and 
political context. The edited volume is split into three sections dedicated to issues 
of identity, attachment and power relations, respectively. Each section contains 
five chapters dealing with a mixture of personal and place-names. 
Reviews 119
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 13, 2019, 115–20
Part I is entitled ‘The Varied Identities of People and Places’ and focuses on 
identity formation through naming. The first chapter, by Katarzyna Aleksiejuk, 
offers a succinct and clear introductory overview to the coining of internet personal 
names and the research which has thus far been conducted in this field.  The second 
chapter, by Ian D. Clark, examines how Aboriginal toponyms were perceived by 
nineteenth-century colonialists in Australia by examining the writings of British 
travellers. He reports that the three most prolific writers on the subject find new 
English toponyms to be ‘semiotically incongruous’ with the Australian places they 
name (p. 18). The third chapter, by Michael Walsh, remains in Australia but shifts 
away from place-names as he explores the changing personal names of Australian 
Aborigines, both those imposed on and chosen by the community from the first 
period of continued European contact to the present day. Walsh’s chapter not 
only covers the social and linguistic aspects of these names through time but also 
signposts sources for further inquiry into this intriguing topic. In the following 
chapter, Ellen Bramwell reports on her research conducted on the personal 
naming practices of a small community on the Western Isles. In examining both 
official and unofficial names, as well as the motivations behind each, Bramwell’s 
chapter provides an interesting insight into the interaction between society and 
naming. In the final chapter of the first section, Peter Mühlhäusler and Joshua 
Nash report on how the previously stigmatised Norf’k [sic] language is now being 
used to attract visitors to the tourism dependent Norfolk Island and raise concerns 
over how genuine this language revitalisation is. 
The second section of the book, ‘Attitudes and Attachment’, contains chapters 
focused on attachment to and attitudes towards names. The first chapter, authored 
by Laura Kostanski, gives an analysis of attitudes towards reviving indigenous 
names for the Grampians National Park, Victoria, as well as for areas within it. 
Through this analysis, Kostanski suggests ways in which authorities may more 
effectively deal with name restoration. The next chapter moves to Finland as Terhi 
Ainiala reports on her interviews with Helsinkians into their attitudes towards the 
street names in their neighbourhood. Ainala analyses attitudes towards the names 
and name elements as well as the reasoning behind the attitudes, concluding 
that street names are judged on their ‘lexical appearance’, descriptiveness and 
memorability. The third chapter, by Maimu Berezkina, examines the Linguistic 
Landscape of Oslo and conducts socio-onomastic surveys in order to investigate 
how the city’s multicultural population use and perceive place-names and 
commercial names. Berezkina notes the different language choices made in 
official and unofficial names and the strong correlation between connection to 
place and toponymic attachment. In the following chapter, Maggie Scott examines 
the perception of Scots in both the onomasticon and lexicon. Her findings suggest 
Scots to be more readily accepted in onomastic contexts than in the lexicon. In the 
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final chapter, Erzsébet Győrffy discusses her survey conducted with students at the 
University of Debrecen regarding slang toponyms. Her findings reveal the form 
and motivation for these slang toponyms as well as the contexts in which they are 
likely to be used, highlighting slang toponyms as an interesting and fruitful avenue 
for further study.
The final section of the book, ‘Power, Resistance and Control’, turns attention 
to the power that naming brings and the impact of power inequalities. In the 
opening chapter, Guy Puzey uses a Gramscian framework to examine the Nynorsk 
language movement’s impact on place-names within Norway. He also assesses 
the situation in northern Italy where the promotion of dialectal spellings for 
toponyms has strengthened the Lega Nord’s cause. Puzey’s work highlights the 
power of naming to signal belonging and exclusion. In the following chapter, 
Staffan Nyström gives an overview of the work carried out by the Name Drafting 
Committee of Stockholm with regards to parks, footpaths and bridges and 
discusses name planners’ treatment of multiculturalism and social issues. In 
the third chapter of this section, Justyna B. Walkowiak systematically examines 
personal naming policies within a language policy and planning framework. 
Her work encompasses a number of countries and considers policy changes 
throughout time and provides an excellent insight into naming policies and their 
impact. In the next chapter, Aud-Kirsti Pedersen reports on the implementation 
of the Norwegian Place-Name Act and the issues it faced with regards to Sami and 
Kven place-names as well as farm name spellings. The final chapter by Kaisa Rautio 
Helander compares the official recognition of Sami place-names in Finland with 
that in Norway and discusses how effective each legislator has been in promoting 
these names. 
Overall, the book provides a decent range of works addressing issues of identity, 
attachment attitudes and power within onomastics. The impact of these varied 
threads, however, might have been aided by the inclusion of an introduction and/
or conclusion to each of the three sections, to give a cohesive and more detailed 
discussion of the major themes of the chapters within as well as to define some 
of key terms (e.g. attitude in Part 2). Additionally, the book’s chapters focus 
primarily on a limited number of European countries, namely Norway, Finland 
and Scotland, with some forays into Hungary and Italy and, outside Europe, in 
Australia. It would have been more comprehensive and indeed intriguing, had 
chapters been included that looked at a more diverse range of countries and 
continents, particularly considering the broad themes explored. Nevertheless, 
the volume contains a number of politically and socially aware works and offers a 
solid contribution to the expanding field of critical onomastics. 
Katherine Cuthbertson, University of Glasgow


English

Guy Puzey and Laura Kostanski (eds.): Names and Naming: People, places, perceptions and power

Cox, Richard A.V.

Towards a Taxonomy of Contact Onomastics: Norse Place-names in Scottish Gaelic

James, Alan G.

A Note on the Place-name Dreva, Stobo, Peeblesshire

Editor, The

Prelim

Brooke-Freeman, Eileen

Memories, Meids and Maps: the Shetland Place Names Project

Taylor, Simon

Bibliography of Scottish Name Studies for 2010

Márkus, Gilbert

Stephen T. Driscoll, Jane Geddes and Mark A. Hall: Pictish Progress: New Studies on Northern Britain in the Early Middle Ages

P-Celtic in Southern Scotland and Cumbria: a review of the place-name evidence for possible Pictish phonology

The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 7, 2013, 85–88
1 I am grateful to Carole Hough and Andrew Breeze for their help with this bibliography.
Bibliography of Scottish Name Studies for 2012
Simon Taylor
University of Glasgow
This is the fourth such bibliography in The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 
(JSNS), the first appearing in JSNS 4 (2010) covering the years 2006–2009, the 
second in JSNS 5 (2011) covering the year 2010, and so on. It aims to present, 
in a continuous list arranged alphabetically by author, all relevant articles, 
chapters in edited books, monographs, CDs, e-books and PhDs (some of which 
are now available on-line) which appeared in 2012.1 It draws heavily on the 
bibliographies which I compile for Scottish Place-Name News, the twice-yearly 
Newsletter of the Scottish Place-Name Society, which should also be consulted 
for shorter, often illustrated, articles on a wide range of Scottish toponymic 
themes. The bibliography which follows is therefore somewhat biased towards 
place-names rather than personal names. However, the much higher proportion 
of place-name related material is also a reflection of the relative state of each of 
these disciplines in Scotland.
For more extensive bibliographies of name studies in Britain and Ireland 
and, less comprehensively, other parts of northern Europe, see the bibliographic 
sections in the relevant issues of Nomina, the journal of the Society for Name 
Studies in Britain and Ireland, compiled by Carole Hough. Two have become 
recently available (as of December 2013): the first is her ‘Bibliography for 2010’ 
(Nomina 34 (2011), 163–75), published 2013; the second is her ‘Bibliography 
for 2011’ (Nomina 35 (2012), 161–72), also published 2013. The material 
in these Nomina bibliographies is set out thematically and includes relevant 
reviews which have appeared in the given year.
An extensive, though by no means exhaustive, bibliography of Scottish 
toponymics, set out thematically and regionally, can be found on-line at 
<http://www.spns.org.uk/bibliography09.html#advanced>. 
I would be very pleased to hear from anyone who spots any omissions or 
errors in the following bibliography. I can be contacted via the JSNS website 
or by post c/o Clann Tuirc. Also, I would be glad to receive notice of anything 
published in 2013 for inclusion in JSNS 8.
In order to make it easier for the reader to find their way around, I have put 
in bold not only authors’ surnames but also some of the key places, persons or 
elements discussed in the individual entries.
Simon Taylor86
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 7, 2013, 85–88
Ahlqvist, Anders, 2012, ‘Three Otago Place-Names of Celtic (?) Origin’, 
Australian Celtic Journal 10, 85–105 [notes on the derivation of Balclutha, 
Dunedin and Mavora Lakes, New Zealand, with important new insights 
into the derivation of Edinburgh].
Baldwin, John, and Drummond, Peter, 2011, Pentland Place-Names: An 
introductory guide (The Friends of the Pentlands, Edinburgh) [omitted in 
error from ‘Bibliography for 2011, JSNS 5].
Breeze, Andrew, 2012, ‘The Name and Battle of Arfderydd, near Carlisle’, 
Journal of Literary Onomastics 2, 1‒9, <http://digitalcommons.brockport.
edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=jlo>.
Breeze, Andrew, 2012, ‘ “Pen ren wleth” (BT 34.1) and Gourock, Scotland’, 
Studia Celtica 46, 191‒4.
Breeze, Andrew, 2012, ‘The Names of Farne and Lindisfarne’, Studia 
Indogermanica Lodziensia 7, 59‒65.
Breeze, Andrew, 2012, ‘The Names of Rheged’, Transactions of the Dumfriesshire 
and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society (3rd Series) LXXXVI, 
51‒62.
Coates, Richard, 2012, ‘A toponomastic contribution to the linguistic 
prehistory of the British Isles’, Nomina 35, 49–102 [includes a discussion 
of Scottish island-names Arran, Bute, Coll, Hebrides, Iona, Mull, Seil and 
Uist].
Crook, Alice, 2012, ‘Personal Names in 18th-Century Scotland: a case study 
of the parish of Beith (North Ayrshire)’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 6, 
1‒10, <http://www.clanntuirc.co.uk/JSNS/V6/JSNS6%20Crook.pdf>.
Davies, John Reuben, 2012, ‘Old Testament personal names among the 
Britons: their occurrence and significance’, Viator 43:1, 175–92. 
Fraser, Kenneth, 2012, ‘What’s in a name?’, Clyde Steamers: magazine of the 
Clyde River Steamer Club 48, Summer 2012, 18–22.
Fraser, Kenneth, 2012, ‘The politics of naming warships’, Nomina 35, 131–40.
Gilbert, John M., 2012, ‘Medieval Woodland Management in Southern 
Scotland’, Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and 
Antiquarian Society (3rd Series) LXXXVI, 77‒117.
Grant, Alison, 2012, ‘Scottish place-names: Dod’, Scottish Language Dictionaries’ 
International Newsletter 11 (Spring), <http://www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk/
Publications/Newsletters/INL05_12/dod.html>.
Grant, Alison, 2012, ‘Scottish place-names: Firth’, Scottish Language 
Dictionaries’ International Newsletter 12 (Autumn/Winter), <http://www.
scotsdictionaries.org.uk/Publications/Newsletters/INL11_12/firth.html>.
Hammond, Matthew H., 2012, ‘The Use of the Name Scot in the Central 
Middle Ages. Part 2: Scot as a surname, north of the Firth of Forth’, JSNS 
Bibliography of Scottish Name Studies for 2012 87
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 7, 2013, 85–88
6, 11‒50, <http://www.clanntuirc.co.uk/JSNS/V6/JSNS6%20Hammond.
pdf>.
Hough, Carole, 2012, ‘Celts in Scandinavian Scotland and Anglo-Saxon 
England: Place-names and language contact reconsidered’, in Language 
Contact and Development around the North Sea, ed. Merja Stenroos, Martti 
Mäkinen and Inge Særheim, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 321 
(Amsterdam and Philadelphia), 3‒22.
Hough, Carole, 2012, ‘New approaches to personal name studies in Scotland’, 
in Facts and Findings on Personal Names: Some European Examples, ed. L.-G. 
Larsson and S. Nyström, Acta Academiæ Regiæ Scientiarum Upsaliensis 22 
(Uppsala: The Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Uppsala), 71–89.
McNiven, Peter, 2012, ‘Place-names and the medieval church in Menteith’ 
(Part 1), History Scotland 12, No. 6 (Nov. / Dec.), 36‒43.
Macquarrie, Alan, with Rachel Butter (and contributions from Simon Taylor 
and Gilbert Márkus), 2012, Legends of Scottish Saints: Readings, Hymns and 
Prayers for the Commemorations of Scottish Saints in the Aberdeen Breviary 
(Dublin) [includes the makings of a Dictionary of Scottish Saints by Rachel 
Butter].
Márkus, Gilbert, 2012, Place-Names of Bute (Donington).
Márkus, Gilbert, 2012, ‘From Goill to Gall-Ghàidheil: place-names and 
Scandinavian settlement in Bute’, in Historic Bute: Land and People, ed. Anna 
Ritchie (Society of Northern Studies, Edinburgh).
Nurminen, Tehri, 2011, ‘Testing the Gelling Hypothesis: Old English Hill-
Terms in the Place-Names of Northumberland and County Durham’, 
Nomina 34, 51‒90.
Nurminen, Tehri, 2012, ‘Hill-Terms and the Place-Names of Northumberland 
and County Durham’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Newcastle.
Parker, Michael, 2012, ‘An Eighth-century Reference to the Monastery 
at Hoddom’, JSNS 6, 51‒80, <http://www.clanntuirc.co.uk/JSNS/V6/
JSNS6%20Parker.pdf>.
Scott, Margaret, and Clark, Andrew, 2011, ‘Directions in English Place-Name 
Studies: an invitation to debate, with a case study of Salford Quays’, Nomina 
34, 27‒50.
Scott, Maggie, 2012, ‘Capitalising on the City: Edinburgh’s Linguistic 
Identities’, in Language, Space and Power: Urban Entanglements, ed. Jani 
Vuolteenaho, Lieven Ameel, Andrew Newby and Maggie (Collegium 13, 
[based on papers given at the symposium on Urban Symbolic Landscapes: 
Power, Language, Memory – organised at the University of Helsinki in May 
2011, <http://www.helsinki.fi/collegium/journal/volumes/volume_13/>.
Sutton-Spence, Rachael, and Coates, Richard, 2011, ‘Football Crazy? Place-
Simon Taylor88
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 7, 2013, 85–88
names and football club-names in British Sign Language’, Nomina 34, 5‒25.
Taylor, Simon, 2012, ‘Alba: Scottish Place-Names’, in Logainmneacha: Place-
Names, ed. Marion Gunn, advisory ed. An tAthair Pádraig Ó Cuill, Ian 
Mac Consaidín (proceedings of Comhdháil Cheilteach /Celtic Congress, 
Sligo 2009), 2–44 (Dublin) [also contains chapters on the place-names of 
Brittany (Jean-Yves Le Moing), Wales (Hywel Wyn Owen), Ireland (Art 
Ó Maolfabhail), Cornwall (Craig Weatherhill) and Isle of Man (George 
Broderick), as well as a Common Celtic Glossary of Place-Names by Jean-
Yves Le Moing, in consultation with S. Taylor and A. Ó Maolfabhail and 
reports on workshops held at the Congress], ISBN 978-1-899082-04-9.
Taylor, Simon, 2012, ‘Bibliography of Scottish Name Studies for 2011’, 
Journal of Scottish Name Studies, 97‒99.
Taylor, Simon, with Gilbert Márkus, 2012, The Place-Names of Fife Vol. 
5 (Discussion, Glossaries and Edited Texts, with Addenda and 
Corrigenda of Volumes 1–4) (Donington) [volume 5 of a five-volume 
series].


Bibliography of Scottish Name Studies for 2012

McNiven, Peter

Place-names and the Medieval Church in Menteith

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