24 replies to this topic

[ELeFevre]

Is there an apostrophe in "The People's Republic of China"? or is it like this " The Peoples Republic of China'
I've found it both ways, even though the first seems grammatically correct. Anyone?

[Dennis McClendon]

The weight of authority seems to be with the apostrophe, which is specifically prescribed by the AP, New York Times, and USGPO style manuals.

On a map, of course, it is more common to use the simplified form "C H I N A."

[Hans van der Maarel]

On a map, of course, it is more common to use the simplified form "C H I N A."

Or even: "P. R. C. C H I N A"

On a side note, why is it that large countries (Russia, China, Brazil, Canada) often have short names and small countries (Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, St. Vincent & The Grenadines) often have very long names?

[ELeFevre]

On a map, of course, it is more common to use the simplified form "C H I N A."

Or even: "P. R. C. C H I N A"

On a side note, why is it that large countries (Russia, China, Brazil, Canada) often have short names and small countries (Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, St. Vincent & The Grenadines) often have very long names?

Thanks Hans. I'll probably go with the apostrophe and call it good. We used a similar title in an old version of this map, so I really don't want to make a big change and go with 'CHINA'.

Maybe small coutries were given long wordy names to compensate for the lack of size? "Napolean syndrome" perhaps!

[Dennis McClendon]

Yeah, on a street map you can always count on the 200-foot-long cul-de-sac to be named something like "Chrysanthemum Blossom Circle" or "Callej?n de los Rincones Verdes."

[Rick Dey]

I think developers sometimes suffer from "street envy" when their cul-de-sacs are too short and they end up making up for it with big names.

A while back when a subdivision decided they were going to sell naming rights to their streets to help raise money for the local school district I considered asking them to add to the list of rules that the length of the name had to be proportional to the length of the street.

[frax]

A while back when a subdivision decided they were going to sell naming rights to their streets to help raise money for the local school district I considered asking them to add to the list of rules that the length of the name had to be proportional to the length of the street.

That's gotta be tough to come up with a name for that long street that crosses the whole neighbourhood...

[Hans van der Maarel]

I think developers sometimes suffer from "street envy" when their cul-de-sacs are too short and they end up making up for it with big names.

Apeldoorn, one of my clients, has the "Burgemeester Jonkheer Quarles van Uffordlaan"... A small connecting road, less than 2 cm on the map in a rather busy area...

[Maisie]

Conversely, there's "3rd Ave." and "Elm St." that cross the entire city. I call it the Andes effect.

When one block of of a street gets changed to "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd." is fun, too.

I once typed a new development where street names WERE proportional to their length. Must have been laid out by a cartographer.

[manrydr]

A great source for general country information is the CIA World Factbook. It can be found at:

https://www.cia.gov/...book/index.html

For the country name field, it lists all forms of the name as approved by the US Board of Geographic Names.

[natcase]

Yeah, on a street map you can always count on the 200-foot-long cul-de-sac to be named something like "Chrysanthemum Blossom Circle" or "Callej?n de los Rincones Verdes."

And why did they have to give such big names to those little states on the east coast? Seems like every time I do a US map I have trouble figuring out where to put "CONNECTICUT" and "NEW HAMPSHIRE". Maybe they should swap names with Iowa and Utah

[MapMedia]

Nice! It would be interesting to see a cartogram where the states' shapes reflect the characteristics of its name (letters, how many, arrangement). The only one that seems a perfect fit already is Tennessee (short and wide!).

[natcase]

Nice! It would be interesting to see a cartogram where the states' shapes reflect the characteristics of its name (letters, how many, arrangement). The only one that seems a perfect fit already is Tennessee (short and wide!).

Your wish is my command....


(11:39 CST: I adjusted the boundary lines after printing it out, and replaced the earlier PDF)

Attached Files

•  orthotypo_map.pdf   156.04K   130 downloads

[Nick Springer]

Very cool! It's like they ran out of letters when they got to naming the western states.

[Rick Dey]

I'm sure I'll hear about this comment, but I especially like the treatment of Texas.