Functions of Usage of Urban Place Names

The following paper introduces various functions of urban place names by analyzing spoken data gathered from residents in the neighbourhood Kallio in Helsinki, Finland. The data consists of six group interviews, in which groups with two to six members answer questions concerning their home neighbourhood. I have studied various kinds of place names (both official and unofficial), which the inhabitants of Kallio use daily, in terms of how the age, range, and users of the names vary, and what types of images the inhabitants have about the names. On the basis of this, I introduce four functions of urban place names: the collective, practical, affective and informative functions. Besides the functions, I also studied another theme – that of the roles of the name users. To mention but a few, the roles include those of the name knower, name specialist, name giver and name learner.