The Naming of Parts; Battlefield Naming and Memory

Atherton, Ian

Abstract

Naming a battle is not an automatic process determined simply by location, but a deliberate and often contested act. This chapter examines the naming process from the fourteenth to the twenty-first centuries, arguing that there are five types of battlefield name: topographic; toponymic; iconic; prophetic; and chronological. Naming is the first stage of memory. Classifying some fighting as a battle and then giving it a particular and usually unique name was not only to make claims about the importance of that event, it was to shape a particular set of memories about the incident. Naming a battle inserts it into history so that it may stand alongside the catalogue of all the other named battles. Naming allows a memory to be preserved; naming turns a battle into history.

Citation

Atherton, I. (2024). The Naming of Parts; Battlefield Naming and Memory. In Britons and Their Battlefields: War, Memory, and Commemoration since the Fourteenth Century (50-80). Oxford University Press (OUP). https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198912880.003.0003

• Publication Date: Sep 19, 2024
• Deposit Date: Sep 2, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Pages: 50-80
• Book Title: Britons and Their Battlefields: War, Memory, and Commemoration since the Fourteenth Century
• Chapter Number: 3
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198912880.003.0003
• Keywords: Agincourt, topographic, toponymic, iconic, prophetic, chronological, Battles Nomenclature Committee
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/889977
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/book/58081/chapter/478610417