Differences between Latvian and English Place Names

Place names –those familiar but often curious names for places that fulfil such an essential function in our daily lives. Place names are also a part of lands cultural heritage as the language and landscape from which they originate, and almost every place name has an older meaning behind its modern form. Place names provide unique resource of information about a society’s history, structure, customs, and values.
Most people have wondered about the original meaning of a place name – the name of their home town or of the another places they have worked at and those seen on roadsigns and post cards, and the more unusual names discovered on trips into the countryside or on holiday. Why the place you live at is called Ottershaw? What is the meaning of a name like Nurmi? What does Oakley or Islip means? And how about Ereļi? …