List of tautological place names


A place name is tautological if two differently sounding parts of it are synonymous. This often occurs when a name from one language is imported into another and a standard descriptor is added on from the second language. Thus, for example, New Zealand's Mount Maunganui is tautological since "maunganui" is Māori for "great mountain". The following is a list of place names often used tautologically, plus the languages from which the non-English name elements have come.
Tautological place names are systematically generated in languages such as English and Russian, where the type of the feature is systematically added to a name regardless of whether it contains it already. For example, in Russian, the format "Ozero X-ozero" is used. In English, it is usual to do the same for foreign names, even if they already describe the feature, for example Lake Kemijärvi, or Saaremaa island. On rare occasions, they may be named after a specific individual who shares their name with the feature. Examples include the Outerbridge Crossing across Arthur Kill, named after Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge and the Hall Building on the campus of Concordia University, named after Henry Floss Hall.

Rivers