Question for smart people. If you are dumb do not enter...

[Brutuskend]

<----Sneaks in, looks around, leaves.

(agrees that it's up to the namer)

 

[bleeb]

That French/English hypothesis was interesting.

 

[hawkeye81x]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: JetBlack69

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: LordMaul
Not sure about the lake question, but for mountains...when there is more than one mountain, it is "<name> Mountains." When there is ONE mountain, it is "Mount <name>."

I think so, anyway. I could be wrong.

And...you *are* wrong

Grandfather Mountain in NC, for one.

Mount Grandfather wouldn't sound too good...

Yeah...that's what I was thinking...just wasn't going to say it.

I can see the logic in that but that could be said for many mountains with names attached e.g. Mount Washington, McKinley, Whitney (what have you).
But Mount definitely applies to singular mountains (i.e. mount being short for mountain). This rule of course is broken by singularly named peaks like K-2 or the Matterhorn
Then again I don't see the problem with calling them Mount Matterhorn or Mount K-2 otherthan they just sound weird b/c they haven't been referred to that in commonspeak.
As for lakes, there doesn't seem to be any explanation other than discoverer/local reference.

 

[Thegonagle]

Being from the Land Of 10,000 Lakes (MN, and it's actually greater than 10,000), and being smart (not that being smart makes me really care) I can tell you that it's whatever sounded best to the person who named the damn lake. It's definitely one of those cases where size does not matter.

 

[tkdkid]

It seems that if the name is an adjective, then it goes before (i.e. Crater Lake, Clear Lake, etc).

 

[iwearnosox]

Then there's Ricky Lake, the worst lake of all...

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: tkdkid
It seems that if the name is an adjective, then it goes before (i.e. Crater Lake, Clear Lake, etc).

That's not the way it always is though, like with Crater Lake. It's arbitrary IMO.

 

[Wallydraigle]

Here in Ohio, we have Buckeye Lake (also called the "Buckeye Ocean" by the locals) which is a five-foot-deep sump hole from where they drained the huge swamp that was central Ohio. Close to my house we also have Lake Buckeye, which is an oversized strip mine that filled with water and became a sulfur pond. Just preference I guess.