Why Names Are Important

Over the last weeks we have seen President Trump issue executive orders to change the names of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and North America's tallest peak, known as Denali to Mount McKinley.

Why are these name changes important? Think about your own name. Your parents, most likely, took great care to select your name. You might be named after an ancestor or saint, or your name might have a special meaning. Imagine having a teacher who decided they wanted to call you something different. While our geography has no say in what it is called, mountains and water bodies carry names that also have a rich history.

The Koyukon people inhabiting the area around the great mountain in Alaska called the peak "Denali" for centuries until a random gold prospector in the late 1800s, who supported William McKinley's run for president, renamed it "Mount McKinley." The name, McKinley, continued until it was returned to Denali in 2015. Naming natural and public places, like streets and bridges, reflect how communities want to be perceived. “Wherever we go in the world and whatever we do – walking around town, looking up a telephone number, surfing the internet, reading a recipe book or shopping for new clothes – we encounter names of places. They surround us, providing us not only with a sense of place but also with a means of finding our way about, searching for information and organizing the world we live in. For all of us, a place name is a reference point of our language and our identity," said Cecille Blake of UN DESA. There are other reasons why geographical names matter. “It may seem trivial when an airline passenger confuses Dulles airport in Washington, D.C. with Dallas in Texas or when they arrive in Sydney in Canada’s Nova Scotia instead of Sydney, Australia. However, it is not trivial when duplication or lack of clearly recorded and easily available names result in confused instructions to emergency services, who cannot reach people in time."

Let's return to your own name and how that name reflects your own identity and place within your community. Random name changes do have an impact and should not be taken lightly. Connections to our history are integral in understanding our country's character. The names of our places continue to teach our history to our citizens. Changing them creates confusion, lack of identity, and miscomunication. In addition, it is expensive and unnecessary.