Toponyms associated with grazing animals

Topographic, geologic and soil features, the physiognomy of vegetation, flora and fauna and the human activities are usually used for naming of land. Many toponyms in Greece are related to geological, climatic and other landscape features (Dipotamia, Anilio, Askio etc). A large number of land names are associated directly to animal husbandry and grazing animals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of words related with grazing animals in the determination of toponyms. A total of 171 toponyms associated with grazing animals was found. Most of them (68) were related with the word goat, 14 of them were names of ancient cities. Toponyms referred to the words donkey, sheep, cow etc followed. The majority of the toponyms related with settlements (77) followed by islands (45) and mountains and their peaks (21).