{"id":16269,"date":"2015-09-16T18:34:09","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T23:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=16269"},"modified":"2021-11-25T16:24:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T21:24:00","slug":"columbus-name-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/columbus-name-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus Name Symmetry, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It doesn’t take much to please Twelve Mile Circle and I’d been particularly fascinated by the first name \/ surname symmetry of Crist\u00f3bal, Col\u00f3n, Panam\u00e1<\/a>. Never one to stop beating that dead horse I considered that Christopher Columbus had lots of other places named for him that remained unexplored. Certainly there must be plenty of other examples with similar symmetry buried deep within those thousands of potential spots around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, I pondered the many language variations of the name: Crist\u00f3bal Col\u00f3n in Spanish; Christopher Columbus in English; Cristoforo Colombo in Italian; Crist\u00f3v\u00e3o Colombo in Portuguese, and so on. Plus there were other permutations like the Latinized version, Columbia\/Colombia. One had to be careful to avoid going overboard though. Words like columbine and columbina derived directly from Latin too (meaning dove-like) and had an etymology independent of Christopher Columbus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Colombia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Alright, I thought, let’s get right down to it. There was that big hunk of South America that formed the nation of Colombia. Certainly there must be a Crist\u00f3bal hiding within its borders somewhere. If it existed, I certainly couldn’t find it. I did uncover three sort-of near misses that provided modest comfort though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pico<\/a>
Pico Cristobal Colon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There was a San Crist\u00f3bal on the southeastern side of Bogot\u00e1. However this neighborhood referred to the actual Saint Christopher<\/a>, the patron saint of travelers, who was probably more legend than fact and “died a martyr during the reign of Decius in the third century. ” Then there was Pico Crist\u00f3bal Col\u00f3n, the tallest mountain in Colombia (map<\/a>), rising an impressive 5,700 metres (18,700 feet). That was pretty spectacular although it didn’t fit the first name \/ surname symmetry. Someone would need to rename it simply Pico Crist\u00f3bal for that to occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, as a consolation prize, I considered that Crist\u00f3bal in Col\u00f3n Province, Panam\u00e1 was once located in Colombia. Crist\u00f3bal would have maintained the requisite symmetry within Colombia from its founding in the 1850’s until Panamanian independence in 1903.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bummer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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British Columbia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Maybe Canada would bail me out of this dilemma. British Columbia was a large place, and certainly named for Christopher Columbus. Natural Resources Canada contained three Christopher names in British Columbia within its extensive database<\/a>; a creek, a lake and a point. I doubted that any one of them would actually be named for the proper Christopher. Still, on some tenuous level it maintained the integrity of the first name \/ surname symmetry even though it required a little imaginative thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n