 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
A place name is tautological if two differently sounding parts of it are synonymous. This often occurs when a name from one language is imported into another and a standard descriptor is added on from the second language. Thus, for example, New Zealand's Mount Maunganui is tautological since "maunganui" is Māori for "great mountain". The following is a list of place names often used tautologically, plus the languages from which the non-English name elements have come.
Tautological place names are systematically generated in languages such as English and Russian, where the type of the feature is systematically added to a name regardless of whether it contains it already. For example, in Russian, the format "Ozero X-ozero" (i.e. "Lake X-lake") is used. In English, it is usual to do the same for foreign names, even if they already describe the feature, for example Lake Kemijärvi (Lake Kemi-lake), "Faroe Islands" (Literally Sheep-Island Islands, as øy is Modern Faroese for "Island"), or Saaremaa island (Island land island).
On rare occasions, such formations may occur by coincidence when a place is named after a person who shares their name with the feature. Examples include the Outerbridge Crossing named after Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge, the Hall Building of Concordia University named after Henry Foss Hall, and Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens in Santa Barbara named after Alice Keck Park.