Mermaid Toponyms in the West Indies: Traditional and non-traditional names

Abstract

The study brings together fourteen landscape place names with the element ‘mermaid’ from the West Indies. The locations range from a coastal cave in Bermuda, in the north, to an inland pool in Trinidad, in the south. Some of these names are linked to regional folklore; some are arguably confected names invented, for instance, to encourage tourism. The author asks what markers can help us distinguish between folklore and confected names and ends with a list of other mermaid place names in Africa, the Pacific and America that might have their origins in indigenous or colonial era folklore.