Néotoponymie : formes et enjeux de la dénomination des territoires émergents

This paper analyzes the relationships between toponymy and new regionalism: new territories, e.g. municipalities, regions or project-centered territories created by cooperation between previously existing territories, are being named. This naming process points, within neotoponymy – the invention of new place names -, to place names creation that are not designed to replace existing place names, but to brand new spaces generated by processes such as demarcation or devolution. We insist that the name production and selection process reflects local territorial conflicts even better than the final, adopted name. Case studies from both the North and the South allow us to identify general trends, chiefly the search for ‘traditional’ references from pre-colonial or pre-modern times on the one hand, and the tendency of small towns to assert their dominance on their hinterlands on the other hand