Etymology, OGr. etymon “true sence” and logos “speech, discourse, word” is the study of the origin and the history of words.
The Atlas of True Names uses etymology to give us an unusual insight into familiar geographical names - with intriguing results …
Once the names have been taken back to their roots and translated into English, it is immediately apparent that our world has an extraordinary affinity with Middle Earth, the mythical continent where the events of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings are played out.
Middle Earth’s evocative Midgewater, Dead Marshes and Mount Doom are strikingly similar in nature to our own world’s Valley of the Darkland Dweller, Navel of the Moon or Mother of Waters, as revealed by the Atlas of True Names.
Many geographical names are clearly rooted in Man’s observation of his natural environment, i.e.

the physical location of a settlement:

Chattanooga:"Rock Rising to a Point"

the character of an important water course:

Peribonca: "River Flowing through the Sand "

or even just the local vegetation:

Saskatoon:"Fruit of the Tree of Many Branches"