What's in the Name?

How the Streets and Villages in Singapore Got Their Names

Yew Peng Ng

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9789813221475
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: Social Sciences

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Since 1819, more than 6,200 place (street and village) names divided into more than 3,900 name groups were known in Singapore. Based on digitised historical newspapers, dated back to 1830, municipal records and Malay dictionaries, the origins, meanings and date of naming for many place names are uncovered. As part of Singapore history, place names known since 1936 are recorded in this book.

Although place names are fairly static in nature, there have been more than 100 name changes. The naming trends transitioned from English to Malay and then back to English names. Discover that Toa Payoh was not named after a big swamp, Anderson Road was named before John Anderson, a former Governor, took up his job and many more new findings in this exciting book.

This book is a complete listing of all place names since 1936, together with the most comprehensive annotations to date — a first in Singapore. It is also the only book of its kind that analyses naming trends. Information on the origins or date of naming was based on primary sources such as old maps, minutes of municipal meetings, Chinese books and digitised newspapers.

--> Contents:

• A Study of Singapore Place Names:
  • Introduction
  • Nomenclature of Singapore Place Names
  • The Contents of Singapore Place Names
  • Place Names of Chinese Origin
  • Standardisation of Chinese Place Names
  • Evolution of Place Names
  • Conclusion
• Singapore Gazetteer Since 1936 and Annotations

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--> Readership: This book is meant for students as well as the general public interested in finding out the history behind Singapore's place names. -->
Keywords:Singapore;Place Name;Road;Street;Village;Toponymics;StatisticReview: Key Features:

• This is the most comprehensive book on the subject of toponymics using data from digitised newspapers dated back to 1830 that were unavailable in the past
• Use of information from Chinese sources, of which no English books on the same subject has been attempted before
• Analysis of place names and naming trends based on four main racial groups have not been performed previously

PART I

A STUDY OF SINGAPORE
PLACE NAMES

SECTION 1

INTRODUCTION

A place name is the specific label of a geographical entity. It may represent the location of the geographical entity, its genre, or its physical or geographical characteristics. From a literary perspective, place names are the products of a society’s socio-economic and cultural history and its development; thus, they reflect the particular characteristics of that society at certain moments in time. Because place names are not frequently changed, they can preserve historical and cultural information for long periods of time.

Singapore was originally known as Temasek/Tumasik (meaning water-town in Javanese). According to local legend, a Sumatran Prince named Sang Nila Utama was sailing from Riau Island when a strong wind swept his boat to a small island. There, he saw a lion and subsequently named the island Singapura — singa means lion and pura means city. This was the origin of the name “Lion City”, as Singapore is otherwise known today.

Singapore has many historical names. On a nautical map drawn by J C Bellin in 1755, it was called Pulau Panjang (which means long island in Malay). Early records from 14^th century China identified the island using various transcriptions of the Malay names Temasek and Selat, or the Chinese names “Long Ya Men” or “Ling Ya Men”, meaning dragon tooth gate. The dragon tooth was a huge rock in the sea off the beach of Labrador as well as a shipping landmark. It was later called Lot’s Wife by the British and was blown up in August 1848. The name of the island was changed to Singapore after Britain took control of the island in 1819.

Development of the island began almost immediately; by 1823, a town plan had been drawn up. Early street names can be seen on a map drawn by G D Coleman, which was based on an actual survey conducted in 1829 and published in 1835. In addition, two lists of Street and Road Names in Singapore were published in The Straits Times in 1853.

The first study of Singapore’s place names was written by H T Haughton. His list of 73 place names was published in Volume 20 of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1889. This was followed by a list of 225 colloquial Chinese place names compiled by H W Firmstone in Volume 42 of the same journal in 1905.

The first official publication on Singapore place names was the “Singapore Gazetteer-Index to Roads, 1936”. This was an alphabetised table of place names published by the Survey Department of the Straits Settlements. After World War Two (“WW2”), the Survey Department published three editions of its Road and Street Directory between 1950 and 1953. The more familiar Singapore Street Directory was introduced in 1954. It divided Singapore into 115 small sections and provided a detailed map of street names for each section. All the above publications were only produced in English.

The first book on Singapore’s toponyms, Malayan Street Names, was produced by Raja Singam. It was published in 1939 and contained notes on nearly 500 place names in Singapore. Unfortunately, a comparison between this book and primary records revealed many discrepancies in the sources of street names.

Next was a Chinese publication Record of Place and Street Names in South East Asia by Phua Chay Long, also published in 1939. In a revised edition in 1952, the author listed 1,600 place names in English and Chinese, along with a map of the city.

The first complete Singapore street directory in the Chinese language, titled Singapore Guide and List of Street Names was published in 1967. It was compiled by Lee Kian Chye based on the eighth edition of the official Singapore Street Directory. It contained street names in both English and Chinese as well as information on places of interest. Most of the Chinese street names listed in this book were the official versions taken from the road signs posted along the streets. However, it quickly became obvious that the Chinese translations of street names lacked uniformity and were sometimes arbitrary. This situation had resulted from the use of Chinese colloquial street names for some streets; in many cases, colonial officials had also made inappropriate selections of Chinese words.

Noting the above problems, a Committee on the Standardisation of Street Names in Chinese (“Committee”) was formed on 18 January 1968 under the purview of Singapore’s Ministry of Culture. After 14 discussion sessions, the Committee regularised the Chinese names for more than 2,500 streets. The result of this extensive work was the publication of the first bilingual Singapore Street Directory, with a comparative index in both English and Chinese, in July 1970. This format of the street directory was retained until the final edition was published in 2007. The publication of the Singapore Street Directory was privatised in 2000, when Mighty Minds began publishing the book.

A document titled “Compilation of Singapore Street Names, 1993” by the National Archives of Singapore serves as another record of Singapore place names. It contains details on the historical origins and original meanings of street names. It was written in English and remains unpublished.

More recent publications on Singapore place names can be found in Street Names of Singapore by Peter Dunlop and Toponymics — a Study of Singapore Street Names; both are without Chinese translations. The latter is the work of V R Savage and Dr. B S A Yeoh, faculty members of the Geography Department at the National University of Singapore. The third edition of this book was published in 2013.

Notably, in recent years, people have become more attentive to the use of the Chinese language for Singapore’s place names. A case in point was the negative reaction to the tentative Chinese name for a new Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station at Bayfront in June 2005. After prolonged discussions among readers of the local Chinese daily, the original transcription of the station name was replaced by a more elegant and meaningful literary translation.

Based on information available in government records, digitised historical newspapers and other reference materials, this book examines the following topics: the formation of place names in Singapore, the basic structure of Singapore’s place names, and the unique characteristics of Chinese place names and their standardisation. Through this analysis, it aims to provide readers with a better understanding of Singapore’s interesting cultural background and history.

SECTION 2

NOMENCLATURE OF SINGAPORE PLACE NAMES

Place names in Singapore can be divided into the following three categories:

•Simplex name (Single Word)

•Duplex name (Specific Element + Generic Element)

•Complex name (Specific Element + Specific Element + Generic Element)

1.SIMPLEX NAME

Place names in this category are rare, and only five remained in the Street Directory of 2016. They are as follows: Bishopsgate, Bishopswalk, Causeway, Piccadilly and Queensway. Those that have been expunged include: Alder-grove, Chowringhee, Half-Moon and Rimau.

2.DUPLEX NAME

Approximately 56% of current place names in Singapore are duplex names. They can be classified into two categories based on their structure.

•Specific Element followed by Generic Element

Using Pekin Road as an e...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• About the Authors
• Contents
• Part I A Study of Singapore Place Names
• Part II Singapore Gazetteer Since 1936 and Annotations
• Abbreviations and References
• Acknowledgements