Why don't given names vary more per region? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by _number8_@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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like town names are very unique; you probably couldn't find the same 2 towns next to each other very often

but mark steve chris hannah claire laura etc are all very common across the anglosphere

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[-] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

It's a bunch of factors. Other posters highlighted some. Others are:

You're far more likely to name a person after another than a town after another. (Exceptions happen, I know.)
Identical personal names for people can be disambiguated with patronymics and surnames, but usually there isn't much of that for towns, except maybe "in [insert the name of the country controlling that city]".
At least in Abrahamic religions, the name also plays a role to highlight that the person is supposed to follow that religion.
Names follow trends, People tend to die rather quickly, so you don't see often the "old" trends. In the meantime that town might follow some town-naming trend from 300y ago.

[-] lol3droflxp@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Regarding point 1, in New England at least you can visit half of Europe within a few hours of driving if you go by town names.

[-] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Yup, there are exceptions, like placenames named after other placenames, even in the old world. (Cartagena being named after Carthago, England [indirectly] after Anglia, even Byzantium was shortly called Roma Nova by Constantine.) Even then, those are more like exceptions, not the rule.

this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023

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