Upstart Eclipses Namesake

When I think of “New” places I tend to fuse together the full placenames mentally into a single phrase and begin to overlook the separate elements. I don’t forget completely that earlier entities inspired newer ones, although I mostly overlook the original namesake within the larger string.

View from the Canal Street / Algiers Ferry. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
St. Louis Cathedral; New Orleans, Louisiana

For example, if I considered Orléans in France it would have meaning to me and conjure a specific image, as would the city of New Orleans in Louisiana. However, France’s Orléans wouldn’t come to mind when I thought of New Orleans USA, even it it provided the bulk of the latter’s placename.

Oftentimes settlers tacked New onto very significant placenames, bestowing a little piece from their homeland onto frontier backwaters. London was and continues to be an extremely important city. Nobody would try to argue rationally that London in the UK doesn’t dwarf in size, reputation and importance the city of New London in Connecticut, USA. I’m not disparaging New London, of course. I merely want to point out the obvious, that New London, well, it doesn’t have the same worldwide recognition or relevance of London.

Other times, however, the New location managed to grow in significance over decades or centuries to a point where it actually began to overshadow and eventually surpassed the original namesake.


Biases

I recognize that this so-called eclipsing might be culturally, geographically or individually biased. Going back to the New Orleans example I mentioned a moment ago, in my mind New Orleans has eclipsed Orléans. However I’ve spent a lifetime in the United States, I’ve been to New Orleans numerous times both for family and business reasons, and Hurricane Katrina had a direct impact on some of my immediate family. Thus, New Orleans figures quite prominently in my consciousness.

Would a Frenchman concede that La Nouvelle-Orléans had eclipsed Orléans? Probably not. Let’s bear that in mind as I offer a few examples. All of them are subjective. Some may even seem ridiculous to those with different perspectives.


New Zealand

New Zealand derived its name from Zeeland in the Netherlands. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman got credit as the first European to spot the islands in the 1640’s. Dutch cartographers later applied the name Nova Zeelandia / Nieuw Zeeland. This later became an anglicized New Zealand and thus a national name to its English-speaking inhabitants.

Zeeland is a province in the southwest corner of The Netherlands with fewer than four hundred thousand residents. New Zealand, on the other hand, became a well-known sovereign state with more than ten times that population. This, to me, seemed to fit the definition of an upstart eclipsing its namesake.

As an aside, sometimes people confuse Zeeland in The Netherlands with Zealand in Denmark, which is the well-populated island that includes Copenhagen. New Zealand got its name from the former, not the latter.


New South Wales

One should credit Captain James Cook with naming what eventually became the Australian state of New South Wales. That seemed only fair since 12MC discussed places named for Capt. Cook earlier. The Preface to “Captain Cook’s Journal during his first voyage round the world made in H.M. Bark ‘Endeavour’ 1768-71,” which was a literal transcription of his original journal, noted:

“The name, ‘New South Wales,’ was not bestowed without much consideration, and apparently at one stage New Wales was the appellation fixed upon, for in Mr. Corner’s copy it is so called throughout, whereas the Admiralty copy has “New South Wales.’”

Had the New Wales label stuck instead of New South Wales, I’d have a hard time concluding that it had eclipsed Wales, even with Sydney included as part of the upstart state. I think I’d probably give the nod to Wales in that instance. However, because the upstart referenced only one portion of Wales (albeit the one including Cardiff, Swansea and Newport) I’d have to say in my mind that New South Wales had trumped South Wales.

Nobody was quite sure why Cook decided to recognize South Wales from what I could find in my limited research.


New Guinea

This one will take some explanation. I began with the original Guinea, that derived “directly from the Portuguese word Guiné, which emerged in the mid-15th century to refer to the lands inhabited by the Guineus, a generic term for the black African peoples below the Senegal River.” New Guinea on the other hand is the second largest island after Greenland, shared by the nation of Papua New Guinea and a portion of Indonesia.

Certainly there are many other places and things named for ancient Guinea: the African nations of Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea came to mind, along with the Bay of Guinea and all of them within proximity of the original Guinea. There are even Guineafowl and Guinea Pigs named for the same place (even though Guinea Pigs were native to South America).

I wouldn’t suggest that New Guinea should eclipse the collective set of current Guineas, only that it eclipsed ancient Guinea since the original place was a general, amorphous 15th Century geographic construct anyway. Many of the other Guineas mentioned may have eclipsed that older place as well. Well, maybe not Guineafowl. Guinea Pig probably has, though.


How about going back to the USA for some other examples?

Sure. Here are my thoughts:

  • York: eclipsed by New York
  • Jersey: eclipsed by New Jersey
  • Hampshire and New Hampshire are probably a toss-up with people on respective sides of the Atlantic likely viewing it differently
  • Mexico: definitely NOT eclipsed by New Mexico
  • England: definitely NOT eclipsed by New England

Agreements, dissenting opinions and additional examples are all welcome.

Comments

11 responses to “Upstart Eclipses Namesake”

  1. Philip Sites Avatar

    I’ll toss a hat into the ring for the Canucks. I’d argue the province of New Brunswick has surpassed its namesake – the German city of Braunschweig – in popular knowledge.

  2. KCJeff Avatar
    KCJeff

    I’m willing to go out on a limb and state from my perspective that Newfoundland has surpassed Foundland!

    1. Twelve Mile Circle Avatar

      Awesome. It’s not often that I literally LOL.

  3. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    I think New south Wales and New Jersey are probably other subjective ones for cross pond thoughts as well. Most people over here wouldn’t really associate Sydney with New South Wales (instead separating it out as a general image of Australia) and wouldn’t have the foggiest what New South Wales is like, probably thinking of coal mines and sheep (which admittedly isn’t the worst thing to think of).

    As for Jersey, even with Jersey shore most people would think of the state as little more than an extension of the New York Metropolitan Area whereas the island of Jersey is frequently advertised on TV as being ‘like Britain, but sunnier’.

    I think it comes down to media attention a lot.

  4. Peter Avatar

    New York shouldn’t be on the list. It was named not after the British city, but after the Duke of York.

  5. Michael Avatar

    Perhaps the “South” in New South Wales refers to its position south of the Equator?

  6. Calgully Avatar
    Calgully

    For me, New Jersey has definitely not surpassed Jersey, but New South Wales has completely eclipsed South Wales. These are probably both good examples of ones proximity to the new place influencing perception.

  7. Bill Harris Avatar
    Bill Harris

    What about New Caledonia/Caledonia(not that either place is on many people’s radars.)? New Caledonia was derived from the Latin name for what we call Scotland; does anyone refer to it as Caledonia today? New Caledonia is mostly known for serving as a key American naval base during World War II (and the setting for the wacky high-jinx of the sailors of “McHale’s Navy”).

  8. Rhodent Avatar
    Rhodent

    Two examples in other languages come immediately to mind: Nova Scotia and Nuevo Laredo. In the case of Nuevo Laredo, it’s about half again as large as its “Old” namesake, but since said namesake is just across the river, I’m not sure I’d say it has truly overshadowed it. As for Nova Scotia, it clearly has not eclipsed its namesake (which some people might be surprised to learn is Ireland, not Scotland).

    And then there’s New Delhi, where it’s kind of hard to say. As best as I can determine (and I freely admit I could be off base here), there are five different Delhis. First, there is the National Capital District of Delhi. NCDD is composed of three statutory towns: New Delhi, Delhi, and Delhi Cantonment. In addition to these, there is “Old Delhi”, the oldest part of Delhi. Delhi is by far the largest of the three towns, but since New Delhi is the capital, one could argue as to whether New Delhi has eclipsed Delhi.

    1. Joel Avatar
      Joel

      Do you have a source for “Nova Scotia = New Ireland”?

      Everything I’ve found confirms the intuitive “New Scotland” etymology.

      1. Rhodent Avatar
        Rhodent

        Sorry for the long delay in responding; I’m just now seeing your question.

        http://homepage.eircom.net/~kthomas/history/Histroy6.htm

        To be fair, it would probably be more accurate to say that the original meaning of “Scotia” was “Ireland”. I’m not sure whether Nova Scotia was intended to be named after the original Scotia or Scotland.

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