* David ``Smith'' <vidthe...@gmail.com> [2012-09-03 18:51 -0400]:
> In my part of the US, nearly every river is of the form "the X River" and I
> would expect to see it that way on maps, leaving out the "the" which is
> used in forming sentences but not generally considered part of the name.
> In Michigan there's the River Raisin for some reason, and I would expect to
> see those two words in that order on maps. Then there are rivers so large
> and famous they are almost geographical features apart from mere rivers:
> The Amazon, The Nile, The Thames, The Hudson, The Mississippi… the next
> that comes to mind for me is The Potomac, but now we've probably crossed
> that blurry line where the Potomac River sounds more appropriate.
I live near the Potomac River, and I think people here mentally think of
"River" as part of its name, even if sometimes (maybe a little more than
half the time) it gets dropped for brevity. A similar thing happens with
road names: I live near the intersection of Scotts Level Road and Old
Court Road, people understand what you mean if you say, "Take Old Court to
Scotts Level,"[0] but the full names of the roads do have the word "Road"
in them.
I fully agree that there's no way to set a global standard; it should be
left to the locals, who know the features best.
[0] Because the names are still unambiguous. The next larger road is
Reisterstown Road, which goes to the town of Reisterstown. Most
people will refer to it as "Reisterstown Road" even if they drop the
"Road" from other road names, since "Reisterstown" by itself refers
more commonly to the town, not the road.
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