Searching for Place Names

This is 3 Tips in 3 Minutes, and today we’re discussing searching for place names. Tip #1: Think about names that may have slightly different connotations but similar geographic reference. For example, the proper name of the country is the United States of America. This same country is often referred to as just the United States. And it is also called America. “America” by itself can have other connotations—for instance, North America, or “the Americas,” North, South, and Central—but it can be used as a synonym for the United States. By the way, don’t forget to search for abbreviations like U.S. and U.S.A. as well. Similarly, the names England, Britain, and the United Kingdom have different connotations (for example, do they refer only to one country or to a set of countries?). However, they are similar enough in their geographic reference that, depending on exactly what topic and time period you are researching, you might get more thorough results by using these multiple names in your searches. Tip #2: Consider changes in place names over time. For example, the city currently known as Istanbul was once known as Constantinople. The capital of China, currently known as Beijing, has held numerous other names during its long history. And it’s not just cities that change names, but countries, too; Russia was once the Soviet Union. What is now two countries known as the Czech Republic and Slovakia was once one country known as Czechoslovakia. …You get the idea. Be sure you know the name used in the time period most relevant to your research topic, as well as any previously used names which were recent enough to perhaps still appear in literature and documentation. Tip #3: Consider variant name spellings. Names that originate in other alphabets can be tricky. They are transliterated from one alphabet to another in an attempt to recreate the same basic sounds. Keep in mind, transliteration, what I mean by that word: that involves only converting a word into a different alphabet, but not actually translating its meaning into a different language. The current standardized English spelling for the capital city of China is “Beijing.” However, in the past, the standard Westernized spelling was “Peking.” This is not the same as the city’s actual name changing: during these periods, the Chinese still considered their city to have the same name. All that changed was the decision about how the pronunciation of that city’s name should be rendered into the Phonetic alphabet. When researching, it helps to know what spelling was most common at the time relevant to your research topic, but it never hurts to also try searching with several other spellings just to cover your bases! That’s our 3 Tips in 3 Minutes for today! Thanks for watching.