Toponym or geographical- (or place-) name is the object of Toponymy, a lexical and
interdisciplinary science, based on geographic, historical, anthropological, sociological, etc.
data. It’s a special linguistic sign, formed by significant, etymological meaning (whose
transparency is associated to speaker's specialized knowledge), an identifying function to
the referent place and an identity-attribution function to its inhabitant. As a common name,
toponymy means a set of place-names. Until now, there has never been a systematic study
of Bahia municipal place-names. It demanded a descriptive and interpretative work of
current (year 2000) 417 names and a reconstitutive one of their previous chain in some
periods (1824, 1889, 1940, 1970), in order to identify: the nature, structure and origin of
names; motivation and trends on the definition and choice of names; the possible
relationship between them and the settlement of areas; the patterns of toponymic change
(unexplored theoretical theme in Brazil); areas of salient Portuguese, African and
Indigenous influence, focusing on this last one and emphasizing Tupi origin; the disposition
of names at those pointed years. First, there was the survey and registration of geographichistorical
and socio-cultural data of each municipality on standard formularies, base for the
elaboration of a glossary, source, in turn, for tables of toponymic-historical data, which
show the existence of two large areas of Tupi presence: Serra Geral ‘the Large Montain
Range’ and Planalto da Conquista ‘the Conquest Plateau’ area; the Coastal Strip. Zone of
ancient colonization, this one reflects an authentic influence of old ancient Tupi speakers,
whether Indians or colonizers; those, cause of their latest integration to other regions of
Bahia, reflects time fads. Limited data from the large African ethnolinguistic matrix don’t
allow affirming the existence of African influence areas. However, there is a large
discontinuous area that concentrates African five current toponyms and a hybrid form (the
South Coast, the Serra Geral, the Southwest). In addition, complementary historical data
show a higher incidence of African toponyms in the late 19th-century Bahian village
nomenclature, enabling future identification of other African-influenced areas. It wasn’t
possible, either, to identify an area of greatest Portuguese influence on Bahian
macrotoponymy, because Portuguese names are general. The data point to an opposition
between description and homage as the most recurrent naming processes and as true
toponym archetypes. Between 1824 and 1890, there was no significant change in these
mechanisms. From 1940 on, there was a growth in references to political power and a
significant decrease in references to supernatural power, a movement stabilized from 1970
on, although some data show the advance of homage to secular power. Simple formation
and composition are the most recurrent morphological processes in the corpus, although
derivation and flexion are present throughout history. In all Bahia, there is the passage of
natural-reference names to cultural-reference ones. On Bahian macrotoponimy formation,
some lexemes and grammar morphemes are recurrent, especially Tupi ones (mostly
descriptive, some with low or isolated incidence). Among them, some work as a determined
element, occupying, inside toponymic phrase, initial or final position (accompanied by a
determining adjective) and medial position (on pure genitive relation or added by locative
construction). There’s no concentration of linguistic fossils only among the oldest
municipalities, because some of the newest cities also contain them. From postindependence
until the mid-1950s, it was common the replacement of Portuguese forms by
Tupis ones. Bahian corpora doesn’t fully confirm the discontinuous pattern of toponymic
change; so, the existence of discontinuous non-directionality of these changes is not
affirmable. It was possible to identify 10 categories of toponymic change, paired from 5
cumulative criteria: conditioning factor (spontaneous or natural changes vs. planned or
systematic ones); category conservation / innovation (partial or formal changes vs. total or
categorical ones); relationship between the size of old and new name (magnification
changes vs. reduction ones); linguistic conservation (internal changes vs. translations or
external ones); presence of formants from the old name (lexical conservation changes vs.
regression).