Project 2: Place Names
Everybody must get computer help to complete this project.
The earlier you get assistance, the better will be your project.

 Country and Capital Place Names in the USA 

[You will have all three feelings as you do this project; hopefully, by the end you will only be smiling!]

You should have learned the geographical concepts used in this project in your Wisconsin high school. Whether you did or did not learn the geographical standards in high school, here is your chance to finally do so!

You are going to use an electronic data source of all USA place names to determine how frequently the names of countries and their capitals have been used to label U.S. populated places, such as cities, towns, and villages. We do NOT want to include place names used to label cultural features, such as cemeteries, shopping centers, etc.; and physical features, such as rivers, hills, etc.

Question: Which world regions and countries within them in the world regions do you predict might be more frequent than other region and countries? Think about our discussions in class about colonialism and the center-periphery model. Write down your predictions. Force yourself to predict something, but don't worry about how much or how detailed or whether you are correct on not. Now collect data to see if you were correct. Read an article on the importance of place names, not just country and capital ones.

Collecting the Data

• Step 1 To save you about ten hours of work(!), I have provided you with a list and number of country and capital names that appear as U.S. populated places,. e.g., cities, towns, villages, and hamlets. These data come from the web source GeoNames. All you have to do is look-up the country and capital names with XX beside.
  You must, of course, use the complete list of countries and capitals provided, not just the ones you looked up, for this project!
• Step 2  Although several electronic sources are available on the web to look-up USA place names, you should use GeoNames. Mention in your paper in the introduction which source you used. Remember that you are finding out 1) whether a country and capital appears in the USA, counted as 1 if appears regardless of how many times (Table1) and  2) the number of occurrences (frequency) of all the country and capital place names that appear in the United States, counted as the number of times each place name appears (Table 2). To keep this project simple, use the total number given for each search, regardless of the fact that not all names are exactly what you want, such as Berlin being embedded in Kimberling. You can certainly discuss any "odd" place names related to this project.

  Use GeoNames. Use only the "advance search" function as described below.

  Type the place names in the left-hand box, e.g., Berlin, and be sure that United States has been selected from the pull-down menu. Don't use this menu. Every kind of environmental and human place name is included in this search, resulting in 264  Berlin entries -- look at the bottom right-side. This search results in interesting but irrelevant records for this  country and capital place names project.

  Use this menu. Click on advanced search in the menu and you get this new menu. Select the United States and under Feature Class, select "city, village, . . ." -- in other words, "populated places." Now type Berlin and you get 57 entries -- look at the bottom right-side.

  Optional: This is a wonderful site to find how many of the same place names appear in different countries, e.g., "London" -- the locations indicate British imperialism around the world. Just for fun: How many North Poles are there in the USA? What happens went you fly too close to the North Pole?

  If the previous place name web site is not working, you can use one of two other sources:
  1) Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which lists almost 2 million place names (of all kinds) in the United States!
  Here is what you see:
  
  Type the name of each country and capital, one at a time, in the Feature Name box and select "populated place" in the Feature Class box.
  The total number of occurrences are shown at the bottom, right-hand corner of the page. For "Berlin" populated places, you get a total of 78:
  But if you leave the Feature Class box empty, i.e.,  include all types of place names, you get 346:

  You will notice that not all the listings refer to Berlin, as shown by the the left-hand illustration, but when you click on Moscow, for example, you get a "variant name" for Moscow which is or was called Berlin! To make things simple, use the total given for each country and capital you typed into this data source.

  But think about the frequency of some place names. For example, the "Turkey" place names do not refer to Turkey the country, but to the _ _ _ _ (!!). Also when you type "France" you get a lot of "Frances," which refers to something other than the country. India can give you very large numbers of Indians -- hardly a South Asian place name.  If you select the Exact Match box, you eliminate this problem in this case, but you also don't capture place names such as New Paris, for example. So, be careful. Mention these kinds of data problems in your paper.
  or
  2)  U.S. Gazetteer. Mainly populated places, (e.g. cities, towns, villages) are included in this data file. Type the country and capital in the Name box; leave the other boxes empty. Once the list of places with the name you typed appears, count the number of occurrences. Although you have to count the number of occurrences, the data are straight forward.

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The Analysis

• Step 3  Create two tables by world regions.
  • Classify the raw data, which you completed above, by grouping each country and capital into their appropriate world region.
  • Table 1: the number of countries and capitals by world regions which appear as U.S. place names (i.e. does a name appear or not.) Think about the order of the regions in the tables: which region is the study centered on? Where is the next geographically logical region? Where is/are the less important region(s)? Each table must have a descriptive title on the top and a source(s) at the bottom.
    Optional but highly effective: graphs display complex data in easily understandable format. Do not use pie charts! If you like, learn how to create good-looking graphs. Ask for help from the instructor or PALS before you make graphs.
  • Table 2: the frequency of countries and capitals by world regions which appear as U.S. place names (i.e., how many times does a name appear?) Each table must have a descriptive title on the top and a source(s) at the bottom.
    Optional but highly effective: graphs display complex data in easily understandable format. If you like, learn how to create good-looking graphs.
• Step 4  Construct a map by countries. What are countries?
  • Use the frequency data to construct a map by countries, either 1) by hand or 2) by computer program:
    1) for hand coloring, print a vertical version of the countries of the world.
    2) if you want to color the countries with a computer program, click on a horizontal version the world map and the map should automatically open in a Paint program or a menu appears from which you can select to open this file or to save it. I recommend just opening it. When Paint (located under the Start button, then Accessories) is open, use the paint can symbol to fill the countries with shades of black, grey, and white, or, if you have a color printer, with appropriate colors. Then create a legend with the same colors as on the map. Also use the text symbol (A) to add a title and source. Finally, either print your map or save it on your H drive.
  • Use these blank maps to show where in the world and how often the names of countries and capitals or both appear as U.S. place names.
    One map or two? Does it really matter whether immigrants named a USA place, for example, Norway or Oslo. Here is a mapping (and graphing) principle: the more numbers, the better the map (and less work in this case!). So, now you know what to do!
  • Use shadings of only one or two related colors for each of the following examples of class intervals.
    For the country and/or capital data use: 0 (none), 1-3, 4-9, 10-19, 20-44. Create your own intervals for the data you are mapping.
    The lowest values have the lightest colors/shadings and the highest values have the darkest colors/shadings.
    Countries with 0 must have their own category, not be included with countries that have at least 1 occurrence!
  • Do not use a different color or different pattern for each category unless they are related in such a way that high to low values can be determined without looking at the legend! General instructions for map design are provided.
    Remember what Ad Reinhardt said: "As for a picture [or map], if isn't worth a thousand words, the hell with it." What is it like to have a passion for maps? Maps are not always helpful in life!
• Step 5  Content of your paper: discuss the predictions, tables, and map.
  • First, discuss your predictions. Which world regions and country and capital names do you expect to find in the United States?
  • Second, describe specific major regional patterns from the tables, using the percentages you calculated!
    Based on the percentages, which places are important, unimportant, and invisible?
  • Third, briefly relate your findings to your earlier predictions.
  • Fourth, try to explain in board terms the major spatial patterns as best you can without doing library work, but reflect on what you have already learned in this course. How do place names reflect the national origins of people in the U.S. as a whole? Don't discuss the patterns within the USA.
  • Finally, which metaphor, the "melting pot" or the "salad bowl," best describes these place name patterns? Elaborate on each metaphor in detail and relate the metaphor you picked to your data. Be as specific as you can. Remember our classroom discussion of Thomas Hardin's lifeboat metaphor, but don't discuss it in this paper! For the fun of it look at a political cartoon of a George Bush's Caesar salad.
    Be thoughtful, think about your data and the spatial patterns. Read related articles: U.S. places called Moscow and, just for interest, how place names reflect historical animal distributions. Governments change place name: read about changing Bangalore, India, to Bengalooru.
• Step 6  Organization of your paper.
  • Make an outline before you start writing. Start with an introduction to the whole paper, your region and/or country predictions; then describe the major patterns in Tables 1 and 2, and Map 1, citing the relevant percentages; finally, conclude with your discussion of the metaphors.
  • You must use the provided cover page (Word document); print it and provide the information requested. Staple the paper in the top left-hand corner. No plastic or other kinds of covers. Tables, graphs, and maps should appear within the text as they are mentioned. And don't leave pages partially blank! Raw data should not be included in the text but may be included at the end as an appendix. The text and tables must be machine-printed (not hand written), but the maps can be hand drawn, although better made in a paint program.
  • Write carefully; edit your work several times. Use a technical or scientific writing style, not a conversational or creative writing style. For an acceptable writing style, examine articles on food security, architecture in Eau Claire, or dairy barns in Wisconsin, written and published by Ingolf Vogeler. For how to write well, see The Economist's style guide.

  If you want to expand you understanding and appreciation of place names, you might be interested in reading From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame, by Mark Monmonier (Chicago University Press).