I'm considering it as well...I've always been intrigued by word origins and these two atlases aren't very expensive.
I love etymology to the point that people think I’m nutty because I’ll keep digging until I find the answers.
A spare room upstairs is full of old books on this sort of stuff.
Etymology tells us a great deal about who we are and who and where we come from....having a passionate interest in etymology is much like having a passionate interest in history....nothing wrong with that, and it's quite a useful body of knowledge to have.
I *am* curious about how they arrived at London’s origin.
I’ve always read that it came from “Lugdunum” or “Fortress of Lug”, the Celtic deity.
Hmmm....
Apparently this question is still a matter of fierce scholarly debate.
I appreciate place name origins particularly because the ones around here are pretty dull.
When the pioneers got this far west, they must have been parched because just about every village/town near me has something involving water in the name.
[Clear Spring, Big Springs, Indian Springs, Falling Waters, Beaver Creek, Berkeley Springs, Bath...you get the drift] ...;-D
It’s a change to read of place names with history behind them rather than thirst....:)