From the earliest times in China’s history, there have been studies focusing on ancient place names. Since the formation of modern toponymy, more and more scientific methods have been applied. Since the launch of the China Geographical Names Cultural Heritage Protection Project in 2004, the protection and research of toponymy has attracted wide attention of academic circles.

There are more than 100,000 ancient place names covering China’s existing political districts, settlements, mountains, rivers and roads. Tan Ruwei, professor from the Cultural Geography Research Center at Tianjin Normal University, said that toponymy contains not only geographical, but also social and cultural phenomena.

Read about the secret of Chinese toponyms here.

Kyiv City Council on April 4 voted to rename Ivan Kudrya Street in central Kyiv John McCain Street. The initiative was supported by 71 of 120 deputies of the City Council. Kiev authorities also received consent from the family of the American politician.

The name of Senator McCain will now bear the street Hero of the Soviet Union, Ivan Kudrya. During World War II, he was a scout and led an underground reconnaissance and sabotage group in Kiev. The authorities in Kiev chose this street because McCain fought for democratic values ​​and “defended the interests of Ukraine,” the website says. Residents of the city also offered to name the street in honor of the senator – they, together with public organizations, registered the appropriate petition.

A new study says that cats can learn and react to the sound of their own name. It also claims to be the first experimental evidence that cats can discern human speech.

The results published in journal Scientific Reports do not suggest cats can attach meaning to words or understand their name refers to their identity, researcher Atsuko Saito of Sophia University in Tokyo explained. Rather, Japanese scientists documented that cats reacted differently to their own name as compared to other words — they perked up. From the results of all experiments, it thus appears that at least cats living in ordinary households can distinguish their own names from general words and names of other cats,” the study reads.

April Lecture Series: Adirondack Place Names: Why is That Thing Over There Called That?

Hosted By: Fort William Henry Hotel
When: Friday, Apr 19, 2019 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Where: Fort William Henry Conference Center, 48 Canada Street Lake George, NY 12845
Cost: Free
Talk and book signing by author Erik Schlimmer.

HOSTED BY: French & Indian War Society at Lake George
For more information please call: 518-668-5471.

Light refreshments provided.

Is it that hard? Apparently so. The Southwest Florida city’s name is often misspelled. Most recently, an egregious misspelling has made its way onto a directional sign for the Fort Myers Cyclery – or the Ft. Meyer’s Cyclery – on U.S. 41.

By Friday morning, Fort Myers Cyclery owner Diane Holm said the sign was finally correct.  “The first sign had the incorrect name,” Holm said. “The second sign had it spelled incorrectly. The third sign has it spelled incorrectly.”  And so on and so forth, she said.  Holm said she wasn’t sure if this was the fourth or fifth sign.

“It’s been fun,” Holm said. “We had Fort Myer up there for a long time, no ‘s’ at all.”

Click through to read the whole article, including a quote from the ANS’s own Cleve Evens:

History aside, when it comes to spelling names, people are going to spell it with what they’re familiar with, said Cleveland Evans, a past president and current member of the executive board of the American Name Society.

As for the errant apostrophe, Evans said: “It’s a common mistake, but it’s somebody that doesn’t remember how to use it correctly and should not be employed by your state government as a sign maker, obviously.”