ortnamn_fram-6-2019_esko 1-MAR-19 GOOD PLACE-NAME PRACTICE The Swedish Place-Names Advisory Board ´s Guide to the Standardisation and Preservation of Place-Names 159 138 English translation of Lantmäteri-rapport 2016:9 Ortnamn och namnvård 6 GOOD PLACE-NAME PRACTICE The Swedish Place-Names Advisory Board’s Guide to the Standardisation and Preservation of Place-Names Gävle 2016 ISSN 1103-0054 3 Preface to the English translation of the second edition, 2019 In 2000, provisions on ‘good place-name practice’ were introduced into Swedish law. They are contained in the Historic Environment Act, underlining the aim of viewing and preserving place-names as part of the intangible cultural heritage. Briefly, good place-name practice means not changing place-names that are established by long usage unless there is good reason to do so, and spelling place- names in accordance with accepted rules of linguistic correctness. Since Sweden is a multilingual country, the national minority languages are also to be used as far as possible in parallel with Swedish on maps and road signs. The Swedish Place-Names Advisory Board is a joint advisory body, linked to Lantmäteriet, that seeks to ensure that good place-name practice is observed in activities relating to place-names. This guide, previously published in two editions in Swedish, has been produced on the Board’s initiative. In the first edition, the emphasis was on presenting and explaining the new legislation, describing the functions of place-names, and identifying the various bodies and organisations involved in efforts to standardise and preserve place-names. That edition also included detailed advice to local and central government name givers on the writing of place-names. In 2016, the Place-Names Advisory Board published a second edition, enlarged to include several new chapters. Here, the responsibilities of central and local government relating to place-names were described at greater length. There was also a separate chapter giving a more in-depth account of the concept of good place-name practice, illustrated by case studies. And new chapters were added on the use of commercial names and international cooperation on place-names. There has long been an interest, both within the UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) and among the international onomastic research community, in this publication on good place-name practice being made accessible to non-Swedish speakers. The Place-Names Advisory Board is now pleased to be able to publish an English translation of the 2016 edition, with minor updates. We hope that it will be a source of inspiration and support in the broad area of standardisation and preservation of names. The changes and additions included in the 2016 edition are the work of Leif Nilsson, former Names Advisory Officer at the Institute for Language and Folklore, Professor Staffan Nyström, Uppsala University, and Annette C. Torensjö, Head of the Department of Onomastics at the Institute for Language and Folklore. Muriel Bjureberg, at the Place-Names Section of Lantmäteriet, has been responsible for editing and graphic design of this publication. The Swedish text has been translated into English by Martin Naylor, MA (Cantab.), Uppsala. Anders Sandin Chair Swedish Place-Names Advisory Board 4 Contents 1 Introduction and background ........................................................................................................ 6 1.1 The Swedish Place-Names Advisory Board ...............................................................................7 2 The roles and functions of place-names ........................................................................................ 8 2.1 Name and place ........................................................................................................................8 2.2 Names are efficient ...................................................................................................................9 2.3 Names convey feelings ..............................................................................................................9 2.4 Names capture ideologies .......................................................................................................10 2.5 Names create a sense of community ......................................................................................10 2.6 Names are historical sources ..................................................................................................10 3 What is good place-name practice? ............................................................................................. 14 3.1 What do ‘long usage’ and ‘established by long usage’ mean? ...............................................15 3.2 Some case studies ...................................................................................................................16 3.2.1 Skinnåkra ........................................................................................................................16 3.2.2 Wanäs or Vanäs? ............................................................................................................17 3.2.3 Lidköping (vid) Vänern ....................................................................................................18 3.2.4 Rosengatan .....................................................................................................................19 4 Place-names and central government ......................................................................................... 20 4.1 Lantmäteriet ...........................................................................................................................20 4.1.1 Place-names in the Real Property Register .....................................................................20 4.1.2 Register-district names ...................................................................................................21 4.1.3 Special names and Sami name forms .............................................................................22 4.2 The Institute for Language and Folklore .................................................................................23 4.3 The Swedish National Heritage Board ....................................................................................23 4.4 The Swedish Transport Administration ...................................................................................23 4.5 Other place-name stakeholders ..............................................................................................23 4.5.1 The Church of Sweden ....................................................................................................24 4.5.2 The Geographical Names Network .................................................................................24 5 Place-names and local government ............................................................................................. 27 5.1 Creating new names ...............................................................................................................27 5.1.1 Block names ....................................................................................................................29 5.1.2 Thematic names .............................................................................................................30 5.1.3 Choosing the final elements of names ...........................................................................31 5.1.4 Commemorative names .................................................................................................31 5.2 Location addresses ..................................................................................................................35 5.2.1 Postal addresses .............................................................................................................39 5.2.2 Location address = postal address? ................................................................................39 5.3 Unofficial names .....................................................................................................................39 5.3.1 Names for ‘nameless’ places ..........................................................................................40 5 5.3.2 Alternative names...........................................................................................................41 5.3.3 Working names ...............................................................................................................41 5.3.4 ‘Estate agent names’ ......................................................................................................42 6 Place-names in minority language areas ..................................................................................... 44 6.1 Legislation ...............................................................................................................................44 6.2 National minority languages ...................................................................................................44 6.3 UN resolutions on place-names and minority languages .......................................................45 6.4 Sami place-names ...................................................................................................................45 6.5 Finnish and Meänkieli place-names ........................................................................................46 7 Commercial names .....................................................................................................................