Geographical proper names consistently and unambiguously identify a particular area of the geographical unit. Names are divided into non-settlement names that define mountains, rivers, climate or other natural features, and settlement names that tell the history of a place or local founder. They are an important source of information, as their formation has been influenced by various political and historical elements that can be understood easily through names. In Japan, geographical names are written in Chinese characters, which are one of the three writing systems in use. In them, different phonemes are written with one character and character meaning differs depending on its use, either as a stand-alone or in conjunction with other characters. The connection between the meaning of the name and the meaning of a character is strong throughout Japan. The name reflects some historical moment based on which the characters were chosen. I have explored in more detail the role that an individual character can have in geographical names. For analysis, I choose the letter ko 子. I analyzed her role in four geographical proper names: Abikoshi, Teshikagachō, Hachiōjishi, and Tanegashima. For each name, I stated where the place is located, its historical background and the origin and the role that the character ko has in the name. Based on the analysis results, the role of the character in the selected names is not the same, but due to the history and origin different in each name.
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