Toponomy

Toponomy is the study of place names in a region or a language, including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. It is closely associated with geopolitics because the performance of territoriality partly occurs through the naming of places. Naming and renaming places is a way to appropriate an area and to erase earlier names attributed by another group. Toponomy can also help reveal the impact of conflicting geopolitical visions when different place names compete. Moreover, some conflicts over names pertain to the politics of transcription and translation in exonyms (names used by outsiders).