From Baton Rouge to Yellowstone:: the colours of the American map

Whatever the personal, historical, and ideological motivations, naming places identifies them and occasionally highlights their distinct geographical features. Whereas Kentucky's Bluegrass and Colorado's White Mountains testify to a pragmatic spirit, more eloquent names such as Alba Mountain and Anthracite Creek indicate the perception 19th century settlers must have had of their environment. With Baton-Rouge recalling the French-Indian past, and Colorado, the Spanish conquista, American toponymy exhibits more than linguistic variations as it also raises the delicate issue of assimilation. In addition, with such patriotic colors as the "red, white, and blue," the question might be asked as to how, and how significantly, they have been bestowed upon the land through the naming process. Relying on place names dictionaries as well as American studies related to the naming process, the present paper focuses on the motives for giving color names to places, with a focus on the differences between subjective and realistic interpretations of the environment. A final interpretation considers the question of how America's colors find a symbolic equivalent on the maps.