International Glossary of Place Name Elements

Joel Mann is a Medical Technologist in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. He is an avid genealogist as well as a layman in the field of onomastics.

A mild mannered medical technologist by day, Mann transmutes into a student of topographical onomastics when bitten by his interest in history and genealogy. Here he compiles elements of place-names that he has spent much time looking up in atlases, dictionaries, and gazetteers; along with their meaning, the language they come from, and often an example of their use in an actual name. He confesses that he is a layman in the field, and must rely on his sources for accuracy.