Toponymy : trends in naming practices behind Singapore street names

Abstract

Past research on Singapore toponymy has mainly focused on the etymological aspects of individual street names as distinct units, overlooking the utilization of naming practices across different languages. Investigation into naming strategies can provide deeper insights not only into the Toponomastics field, but also shed light on both the history of Toponymy in the local context and among different ethnic groups en masse. Therefore, this thesis attempts to explore trends in naming practices in Singapore odonyms derived from three languages, namely English, Malay, and Chinese. Randomized sampling of 50 street names from each language was collected and analyzed according to reconstructed (based on already established categories) naming strategies, including descriptive, commemorative, thematic, and borrowing. Results show tendencies towards naming strategies of commemoration and borrowing for English-derived odonyms, descriptive for Malay street names, and a strong preference for commemorative naming for Chinese-derived ones. Further examination of the odonyms suggests a combination of social, political, and geographical factors underlying these constructions. In spite of limitations regarding the sample size due to space constraint, this thesis aims to serve as a starting point for a new outlook in the investigation of Toponymy, taking into account social perspectives in addition to conventional historical methods.