{"id":14858,"date":"2014-04-03T18:35:22","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T23:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=14858"},"modified":"2021-12-06T15:12:59","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T20:12:59","slug":"more-full-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/more-full-names\/","title":{"rendered":"More Full Names"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I enjoyed compiling a list of Full Name counties<\/a> in the United States earlier this week. In a comment “The Basement Geographer” improved<\/a> the article significantly with a list of similarly-constructed counties in Canada. It was great work on his part. Readers should refer back to his comment and check it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That led me to wonder whether I might be able to find examples in other nations. I focused on places where English was an official language either by itself or alongside others. That’s due to my lack of ability to work with other languages. The upside of this approach was that it left lots of nations for the international 12MC audience to investigate if it so chooses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found one example in Australia and then I hit the jackpot in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Deas Thom(p)son<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\""Deas<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Queensland, Australia contained the County of Deas Thompson, named for<\/a> Sir Edward Deas Thomson (1800-1879). He was a “public servant and parliamentarian” in New South Wales, and chancellor of the University of Sydney. As with a couple of examples in the United States (Jo Daviess instead of Daveiss and Anne Arundel instead of Arundell), someone screwed-up Thomson’s name. In this case they inserted an extra letter. Seriously, why would someone fail to proofread a name before affixing it permanently to the landscape?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The county, from the very little data that I could gather, was situated between Rockhampton and Gladstone on Queensland’s Capricorn Coast. I’m certainly no expert in Australian governance. Even so, the lack of any tangible information or web presence led me to believe that the so-called County of Deas Thompson couldn’t possibly retain much authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d never heard of Deas Thomson, the man. However, that was hardly surprising given my lack of depth in Australian history. Fortunately the Australian Dictionary of Biography provided a remarkable amount of information<\/a>, and frankly much more than I cared to review although I included the link in case it sounded interesting to anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n