Dr Peder Gammeltoft, known for his work on Scandinavian place-names in the British Isles, has created this website which seeks to show how one can publish onomastic data on the internet, in the form of search engines and mapped/geo-referenced data. Dr Gammeltoft writes:
After having advocated a digital future for name research, I have now decided to ‘put my money where my mouth is’. Thus, I have created this website showing the various types of online – and often free – resources one may use in order to display onomastic data online on the internet. The name of the website is: www.onomastics.org. It is divided into a number of sections, the most important of which are ‘Search Engines’ and ‘Geo-Coded Data’. The former explores how it is possible to upload various kinds of name data and display it on the internet by means of a search engine. The latter, on the other hand, explores how it is possible to upload and display geo-coded data on online maps – and in some cases also with search facilities.
Several online resources are tried out and briefly explained for each example. Most of the examples have a clear Danish or Scandinavian focus – this is owing to the fact that much of my work effort has been concentrated on Denmark and the Nordic onomastic cooperation the last couple of years.
For those of you who are interested Danish place-names, there is also a link under ‘Search Engines’ where a search engine provides access to the electronic version of the Place-Names of Denmark (Danmarks Stednavne). It is a very preliminary and unfinished search engine: http://danmarksstednavne.navneforskning.ku.dk/ (please note – this website has been down since 21st April 2023). The search engine comprises all 25 volumes of the series Place-names of Denmark with head form, historical forms as well as an interpretation in many cases. For the third of the country not yet covered by this series, we have supplied the search engine with head form and historical forms. A geo-referenced version will appear in June (on another site).