Minnesota has several lakes named "Mud Lake," one of which I have spent considerable time around. The surrounding area is on top of a huge water table. It's normal for a house with a ~900 sq ft basement to have two(!) sump pumps, and for both of them to run daily(!). Before there was a housing development there, I imagine it would have been very, very muddy. The lake itself isn't particularly muddy, though.
Do Lake Names Reflect Their Properties?
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Re: Do Lake Names Reflect Their Properties?
#12On the Pacific Crest Trail, there is a lake called Gillette Lake presumably because it's the best a man can get. I, for one, quite liked it, as it's bright turquoise due to rock flour.
Re: Do Lake Names Reflect Their Properties?
#13If there's one thing I hate, it's stuck up bodies of water. It's like, get over yourself, Lake Superior.
(a Norm Macdonald joke, RIP.)
Re: Do Lake Names Reflect Their Properties?
#14In the Grand Teton mountains, at 9,500 ft. (2,895 meters) elevation, there is a "Surprise Lake" at the top of the hiking trail, which is kind of surprising when you get there.
Re: Do Lake Names Reflect Their Properties?
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
So in "Paskalampi" and "Vesijärvi", which part of it means "lake"? Naively (I have obviously no clue about finnish), I would have expected some syllables (or token in modern LLM terminology) to occur in both names (i.e. representing the "lake" part).
"Lampi" means "pond", "järvi" means "lake"
Every Finnish word is precious
Re: Do Lake Names Reflect Their Properties?
#16I was surprised to learn that, while the suburb of Silver Lake in LA is in fact named after the water reservoir at its centre, the reservoir itself is actually named after former water commissioner Herman Silver. The way its serene surface reflects the city and the mountains beyond? Just a coincidence.
Re: Do Lake Names Reflect Their Properties?
#17The color of a lake in satellite view depends on the satellite's viewing angle (which depends on the satellite's trajectory and the lake's location), the angle of the sun (which depends on the same things plus the time and date the image was taken), the weather, the satellite's sensors (false color is a thing), and how the images are processed before publishing. Overall I think it's almost impossible to estimate the…
Yeah I stopped taking this post seriously when I read this sentence:
> I fetched the satellite image tile for the zoomed-in region of each lake center and read a single pixel at the center of the tile, which should give us an idea of the lake’s color
Re: Do Lake Names Reflect Their Properties?
#18I live next to Suolijärvi, "bowel lake". I guess the name reflects its shape: https://maps.app.goo.gl/w6wUmBF6m5r6U3eJ9
There's also Särkijärvi, "roach lake" (as in the fish) nearby; presumably there is (or once was) a healthy roach population there.
The most common lake name in Finland is Pyhäjärvi, literally "holy lake" or "sacred lake", but apparently the original meaning of the word pyhä was something like "demarcated" or "dedicated" (in modern Finnish the verb pyhittää means "to sanctify" but also "to devote" or "to dedicate"). So many of these waterbodies may have been named after ancient border or boundary agreements of some sort, pertaining to fishing or hunting rights for example. Rather mundane stuff despite the word's contemporary meaning!
Re: Do Lake Names Reflect Their Properties?
#19I was surprised to learn that, while the suburb of Silver Lake in LA is in fact named after the water reservoir at its centre, the reservoir itself is actually named after former water commissioner Herman Silver. The way its serene surface reflects the city and the mountains beyond? Just a coincidence.
Or maybe that was a factor in why the name change was successful? There can be more than one reason for a name.
Re: Do Lake Names Reflect Their Properties?
#20The color of a lake in satellite view depends on the satellite's viewing angle (which depends on the satellite's trajectory and the lake's location), the angle of the sun (which depends on the same things plus the time and date the image was taken), the weather, the satellite's sensors (false color is a thing), and how the images are processed before publishing. Overall I think it's almost impossible to estimate the…
Also, I think most usually the lake names come from the color they have when see from the ground, rather than from above.
For example, a lake might be blue when viewed from space, but the locals can still call it a "Black Lake" because it's surrounded by mountains made of dark rocks, and when you stand at its shore you can typically see them reflected in its surface, giving an overall impression of a black color.