October 2018

The 2018 IGU Thematic Conference dedicated to the centennial of the Institute of Geography of Russian Academy of Science. Practical Geography and XXI Century Challenges June 5 and 6, 2018

The 2018 IGU Thematic Conference dedicated to the centennial of the Institute of Geography of Russian Academy of Science.

Practical Geography and XXI Century Challenges  June 5 and 6, 2018

C 16.35 Toponymy (Jointly with International Cartographic Association).

Use of Place Names in Public Space

Chairs Cosimo Palagiano and [Peter Jordan] Paulo de Menezes

Cosimo Palagiano, Franco Fatigati, Use of Place Names in Maps of the World Enclosed in Brochures of the International Airline Companies

Z. Prnjat, M. TadićLj. Marković, Road Signs: Markers of Multilingual Communities of Vojvodina

Paulo Márcio Leal De Menezes, Manoel Do Couto Fernandes, Kairo De Silva Santos, Tainá Laeta Evolution of Old Rio De Janeiro’s Downtown Streets and Public Spaces, From 1770 Until Now

Tamara Galkina, Armenian Toponymy on the Map of Moscow

Josip Faričić, Lena Mirošvić, Which Sea are We Sailing? The Name of the Adriatic Sea on Old Maps

Patric Tátrai, Ágnes Erőss, The Politics of Place Names: The Use of Minority Topnymy in Multiethnic Settings

Andrey Herzen, Toponymical Landscape De Jure and De Facto

Attendance: About 10 people around the table


The 2018 IGU Regional Conference in Québec (August 6 to 10, 2018)

The 2018 IGU Regional Conference in Québec (August 6 to 10, 2018)

Chair: Yaïve Ferland (self-proposed)

Matjaž Geršič,  The Use of Geographical Names after the First World War

Cosimo Palagiano,  The Historical Sequence of Place Naming in Italy

Béatrice Collignon , More than Memoryscapes: Place Names in the Inuit Geographic Matrix.

Yaïves Ferland, In the Name of all the Places

Myriam Hallé,  Les Femmes dans la Toponymie : une Place à prendre sur le Territoire

Tétu Pier-Luc , Les Toponymes du Froid et de l’Hiver : un Actif Immatériel Patrimonial

Kristina Kwiatkowski,  Geographical Names Board of Canada Indigenous Naming Policy Scans

Judy Guenette , Advances in the Canada’s National Geographical Names Database

Marcella  Schmidt, New place names or simply loss of memory? The case of Cinque Terre Vernacular Landscape

Attendance: 60 people

Some considerations by Yaïves  Ferland

«Our Joint ICA/IGU Commission on Toponymy managed two sessions with four papers each at the last Regional Conference of the International Geographical Union (IGU2018), hold in the city of Québec, on August 7th, 2018; the Canadian Society for the Study of Names / Société canadienne d’onomastique was involved as local organizer. Three members of our Joint Commission presented: Cosimo Palagiano, Béatrice Collignon, and Yaïves Ferland. Two papers were delivered in French by the Commission de toponymie du Québec, while two others in English came from the Geographical Names Board of Canada and its National Geographical Names Database. The theme of indigenous toponymy, be it traditional or renewed, is growing in importance in Canada and abroad: up to five papers referring to this subject matter in this time of reconciliation. At least five sessions settled by other commissions presented, mainly from a cultural or critical perspective, a dozen papers about indigenous representation of territory by cartography and/or toponymy. By the way, one of the Wiley luminary talk (keynote address) during this week was a speech by the Head of the Commission de toponymie du Québec, titled  « La gestion de la toponymie autochtone au Québec » [Official Management of the Indigenous Toponymy in Quebec]; people in this Commission are vanguard in this domain since four decades. Finally, Yaïves Ferland had prepared a dense full-day toponymic fieldtrip by coach, with 33 people aboard, all around the vicinity of this capital city of the «Belle Province» of Québec.

(Yaïves  Ferland)»


UNGEGN Romano-Hellenic Division. Special Presentation ”The Italian Geographic Institute and the Veneto Region for a new geographical names database”

UNGEGN Romano-Hellenic Division.

Special Presentation ”The Italian Geographic Institute and the Veneto Region for a new geographical names database”

From 26th to 28th September 2018 in Veneto Region Palace and in Palazzo Loredan, headquarter of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, the International Scientific Symposium “Toponymy and Cartography between History and Geography”. Meeting of the UNGEGN, Romano-Hellenic Division has been held, coordinated by Andrea Cantile of the Istituto Geografico Militare and Chairman of the UNGEGN Romano-Hellenic Division.

In the Veneto Region Palace the local session was chaired by Eng. Maurizio De Gennaro of Veneto Region. Andrea Cantile presented  a paper on The standardization of the geographical names in Italy and the joint project IGMI – Veneto Region. Franco Alberti et alii, Veneto Region, Responsible for urban and regional planning (Italia) presented the project “The Italian Geographic Institute and the Veneto Region for a new geographical names database”.

In Palazzo Loredan  in two Session 16 papers were discussed : on GIS in Cyprus ( Andreas Hadjiraftis); on the Colonial toponymy in the Portuguese America (Gil Tiago); on the activity of the IGU-ICA Joint Commission on Toponymy (Cosimo Palagiano);  on On-board airline magazines and their route map toponymy (Helen Kerfoot); on Preservation vs. innovation in the toponymy of Europe (Alberto Nocentini); on Territorial Identity and Place Names (Laura Cassi); on Toponymy and colonization, the case of Italian villages in Lybia (Andrea Masturzo); on Urban Toponymy in Shangai and Tianjin before the Rise of the People’s Republic of China. The presence of Italian Road  Names (Stefano Piastra); on Dialectical terms and geographical locations (Élisabeth Calvarin); on Vernacular places names in the Venetian cartography (XVII-XVIII century). A case study (Arianna Lorenzon); on The transformations of the place names of Naples in historical and contemporary cartography, between landscape changes and territorial identity (Silvia Siniscalchi); on Geographical aspects of the toponymy of Sardinia (Giuseppe Scanu et alii), on Place names as sources to identify landslides risk areas: a diachronic approach to the Trentino case study (Elena Dai Pra); on Topnymy, History and Geographical Systems of selected Place Names in the Cognomen of the Alaafin of Oyo (Ayokunmi Ojebode). This last report was transmitted through Skype.

Attendance: about 60 people.

I congratulate Adrea Cantile on the success of the symposium.