Last time in class we discussed the importance of names and what they mean to an individual. Many people expressed an affection for their name and an unwillingness to have it be anything different. In Brian Friel's "Translations" one of the main character, Owen, is called by the completely wrong name well into the Second Act. When he finally explains that his name is indeed Owen and not Roland, he get in an interesting conversation with Lieautenient Yolland who is in charge of Angelizing the names of all the places in Ireland.
They begin to refer to the changing of place-names as "christenings" and "baptisms." Then Owen makes an incredibly interesting comment, "We name a thing and--bang! it leaps into existence" (56)! Which brought me to the questions, Must a place have a name to exist? The British government throughout this story seems to think so. They focus on naming the places in a logical manner, "Black Ridge," "Blackfoot," etc. while the Irish seem to have much more comlicated names with several definitions, types, and meanings.
So, do we name places to signify existance, or do we name places because it has been engrained into our character?
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I think we name places because places exist- there is no other way to identify a place- sometimes the name may have no meaning- just because it needs a name- however most of the time it does.
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