Humans possess a strong sense of place—that is, a feeling for the features that contribute to the distinctiveness of a particular spot on Earth—perhaps a hometown, vacation destination, or part of a country. Describing the features of a place is an essential building block for geographers to explain similarities, differences, and changes across Earth. Geographers think about where particular places are located and the combination of features that make each place on Earth distinct.

Geographers describe a feature’s place on Earth by identifying its location, the position that something occupies on Earth’s surface. In doing so, they consider three ways to identify location: place name, site, and situation.

Place Names

Because all inhabited places on Earth’s surface—and many uninhabited places—have been named, the most straightforward way to describe a particular location is often by referring to its place name. A toponym is the name given to a place on Earth.

A place may be named for a person, perhaps its founder or a famous person with no connection to the community, such as George Washington. Some settlers select place names associated with religion, such as St. Louis and St. Paul, whereas other names derive from ancient history, such as Athens, Attica, and Rome, or from earlier occupants of the place, such as Milwaukee and Pontiac.

World’s Longest Place Name

The world's longest place name has 85 letters - see if you can pronounce it.

The North Island of New Zealand has a place named Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu

The 1,000-foot hill near the township Porangahau holds the Guinness World Record for longest place name with 85 characters

The hill got its lengthy name from a native warrior named Tamatea. Legend has it that after his brother was killed in a fight with another tribe, Tamatea spent the following days grieving his loss by playing his flute on the hill. The Maori (the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand) wanted to name the location in his honor and chose what is now the hill’s official name.

It roughly translates to:

“The summit where Tamatea,

the man with the big knees,

the slider,

climber of mountains,

the land-swallower who traveled about,

played his nose flute to his loved one.”

Two weather reporters tried to best one another by pronouncing the names of the longest place name in Europe and then the longest place name in the world.

The second longest place name (toponym) is in Wales and is the longest town name in europe.

the Shortest place name in the world is

Å

Å is a village of Moskenes in Nordland county, Norway. It is located towards the southern end of the Lofoten archipelago.

In the Norwegian language its pronunciation "O".

A place name may also indicate the origin of its settlers. Place names commonly have British origins in North America and Australia, Portuguese origins in Brazil, Spanish origins elsewhere in Latin America, and Dutch origins in South Africa. Some place names derive from features of the physical environment. Trees, valleys, bodies of water, and other natural features appear in the place names of most languages.

The Board of Geographical Names, operated by the U.S. Geological Survey, was established in the late nineteenth century to be the final arbiter of names on U.S. maps. In recent years the board has been especially concerned with removing offensive place names, such as those with racial or ethnic connotations.

The origin of Duncanville can be traced as far back as 1840, with the community’s beginning as a small settlement.

It was not until some forty years later, with the construction of the Chicago, Texas and Mexican Central Railroad connecting Dallas and Cleburne that Duncanville began to emerge as a town. The coming of the railroad to Duncanville changed the community. The railroad line connecting Dallas to Cleburne was to be completed not later than April 15, 1881.

With time running short to complete the railroad on time, a shortened method of railroad construction was adopted at an open field owned by James R. Horne and G.H. Finley. Doing this allowed the railroad to arrive in Cleburne two hours ahead of the deadline and a switching station was later built in the open field. It was called Duncan Switch.

In 1881, Charles Nance arrived by train at Duncan Switch to visit his sister, Mrs. William Horne. Finding the area much to his liking and envisioning a bright future for this part of Dallas County, Mr. Nance made the decision to stay in this area. He formed a partnership with Chris Horne, for fifty dollars purchased a lot from G.H. Finely, and built the first building, Nance Brothers, at Duncan Switch.

In August of 1881, Nance forwarded a petition to the Post Office Department in Washington, D.C. to establish a post office. Residents at that time were receiving their mail at post offices in Cedar Hill, Wheatland, or Jim Town.

His application was returned with a notation to choose a different name because there was already a post office in Jasper County, Texas with the name of Duncan. There had been individuals in the community who had refused to sign Nance’s original petition and many others who were hard to convince, so he simply added “ville” to Duncan, so it now read Duncanville. The petition was returned to Washington and, in early October 1881, he received the order to open the new post office under the name Duncanville.

Situation

Situation, also known as relative location, is the location of a place relative to other places. Absolute location describes the position of a place in a way that never changes, such as geographic coordinates of latitude and longitude. Situation is a valuable way to indicate location, for two reasons:

• Finding an unfamiliar place. Situation helps us find an unfamiliar place by comparing its location with a familiar one. We give directions to people by referring to the situation of a place: “It’s down past the courthouse, on Locust Street, after the third traffic light, beside the yellow-brick bank.” We identify important buildings, streets, and other landmarks to direct people to the desired location.

The absolute location of Duncanville in Dallas County, Texas Coordinates: 32°38′47″N 96°54′41″W