Technical Terms | Toponymy | Forum

The absence of replies to this question suggests that there is no term in common usage in toponymy for "the same name but different spelling". Certainly, no such term is listed in the UNGEGN 'Glossary of Terms for the Standardization of Geographical Names' as far as I can see. It is a strange omission since even in England there must be many such examples; in my own area, High Beach/Beech and Lea/Lee Valley are just two that come immediately to mind. But in a country such as Ghana, my country of research, where place names have been written down before official orthographies have been agreed, and have varied with the linguistic background of those recording them, there must be far more. In the GEOnet Names Server database for Ghana about 52% of the locations have allonyms, most of which are merely alternative spellings.

I think it is important for clarity and discussion to have a distinct term other than 'allonym' for an alternative spelling. Alternative names and alternative spellings are wholly different concepts and arise from very different evolutionary processes. I am wondering what other toponymists would think about the word ‘heterograph’. It seems to convey the required idea of 'other ways of writing', and contrasts with 'orthograph' which would be the 'correct way of writing' a name. Other suggestions for discussion would be interesting.

Thanks Carole. Can you point me to any reference/webpage where 'doublet' is used in this sense? However, I'm not sure if it quite meets my needs. The term 'doublet' seems to suggest there will only be two variant spellings, whereas I have examples with multiple spellings. I do think there is a need for such a term simply for ease of communication, e.g. if the accepted term was 'heterograph' one might want to say something like "The toponym 'Ahiem' has at least 3 other heterographs, viz. Ahyiem, Ashiem, and Eshiem".

Thanks again Carole. Although, as you say, 'doublet' is not quite what I want, it's interesting to know that term as well. Alice says that she will put the question to her onomastics reading group. So we shall see what they come up with.