Naming
Names are proper nouns. By convention names are capitalized.
A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (Africa; Jupiter; Sarah; Microsoft) as distinguished from a common noun...... The detailed definition of the term is problematic and, to an extent, governed by convention.[
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_noun
I have a few names. The name my parents gave me. The name I had when I was a kid. I guess my Social Insurance Number is a name. These names were given to me. In Second Life I'm called Simulat and that was a name I chose myself.
The name giver has a certain authority over the name. My sister's name is Jacie - pronounced Jackie. Our high school principal told her that she was spelling her name wrong. She said that he'd have to take that up with her mother who was the authority in the matter.
Names have an important social dimension. They are important for communication. We all have to agree on what a particular name refers to or the name doesn't communicate much.. Biology and chemistry have international naming conventions. A name has to satisfy a bunch of conditions before it is accepted as a name. For similar reasons, a name should be stable over time.
I live in a place called Vancouver. Canada is going through a reconciliation process with our indigenous people. I don't know its indigenous name. It's disconcerting to see indigenous placenames side by side with the anglo ones on street signs. I can't even read their alphabet. I take that to be a small taste of what indigenous people must have felt when European cultures took over.
Names are associated with power. Mom had naming power over my sister and I. Some people keep their names secret for privacy reasons. I've read of cultures where people had a true name that was kept secret so as not to give sorcerers power over them.
Placenames typically vary with language without problem. It's not hard to equate Atlantic Ocean with Ocean Atlantique for instance
The power of one culture to set names is an assertion of power over other cultures that have different names. The power of one man to set names is an assertion of personal power.
One of the social functions of names is to honor people or events. I think this is how street names are chosen. A new street has to be called something so why not name it after a respected person who has passed away? The honor is conferred by society. .
Denali provides an example. An Alaskan gold rush prospector saw it and entered it on his map as Mt McKinley. Seems he was trying to curry favour with a politician. The name stuck for 100 years.
Eventually in 2015 the name of the mountain was reverted to Denali meaning something like "Big Mountain". Last year Trump reverted the name to Mt McKinley. I wondered why. Looked up McKinley and went 'Ohhhh'. He had a foreign policy that Trump slavers after.
But maybe I'm overthinking this. Perhaps he's not following anything like a coherent idea. He needs to dominate and show it. And yet, pathetically, he admits that if he doesn't build monuments to himself then nobody will.
Hehe - I read of a Trump supporter - she really did believe that the flawed Trump had been chosen by God to lead the world out of it's wicked ways. I don't believe in God but she may be right in that Trump may end up destroying the world as we know it.
The move to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America has solidified Canadian opposition to the American hegemony like his call to annex Canada. Our weariness with American trade practices predates Trump. Our own capitalist class has prospered from Canada's integration with the American economy. Perhaps it's a good thing if the capitalists had to prosper by making the country self-sufficient.
The evil Trump may be driving that
What do you think?
I open the floor
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.