{"id":1509,"date":"2017-01-29T20:15:52","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T01:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eglin.net\/2bikes\/?p=1509"},"modified":"2017-01-29T20:15:52","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T01:15:52","slug":"whats-in-a-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eglin.net\/2bikes\/?p=1509","title":{"rendered":"What’s in a Name?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Since arriving in the Caribbean last November, we have checked into 8 countries, visited over a dozen islands, and can’t help but notice the idiosyncrasies of their naming conventions. From simple repetition, to stating the obvious, to the opposite of the obvious, the place names have been a continual source of amusement. Here are some of our favourites:<\/p>\n

Under the category of repetitious<\/em>, the winner is Saint John<\/em>, or the french St-Jean,<\/em> or the Dutch Sint John<\/em>.  Clearly he was everyone’s favourite saint of the day, with a city, town, parish, or bay named after him on almost every single island we visited. Sometimes, to distinguish one Saint John from another, a further moniker is added, like in St. Kitts and Nevis, one country with two St. John’s. One is St. John Capisterre, the other St. John Figtree Parish.<\/p>\n

Under the category of stating the obvious (or perhaps that should be lacking in imagination?)<\/em> the hands-down winner is the island of Saba. This is a small (13 square kilometres, a population of just under 2,000), rather isolated island, a Special Municipality of the Netherlands where Dutch is still spoken. Maybe these names lost something in the translation, but how is this for obvious:  Its towns are called The Bottom (the capital, and, you guessed it, the lowest down), Windwardside (guess which side that’s on), Hell’s Gate (we’ll see more of these, they are usually a geothermal opening of some sort) and of course, St. John’s, everyone’s favourite saint. Their volcano is called Mount Scenery (unique, but still it’s pretty obvious why, if you walk up to the top like we did), and the one road linking all the towns is simply called The Road.<\/em><\/p>\n

More very popular and very obvious names, usually based on geographic features, include:<\/p>\n