PRINCIPLES OF STRUCTURING URBAN TOPONYMY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE TOPONYMY OF THE FIRST THIRTY YEARS OF THE CITY OF BELO HORIZONTE

ABSTRACT

In this study, a comparative analysis of the toponymy of the first thirty years of the city of Belo Horizonte is presented based on plans from two periods: the cartographic documental set of 1895-1897, composed of four plans, and the general plan of the city of Belo Horizonte organized by the 1st Section of the Sub-Directorate of Works in 1928-1929. From a theoretical point of view, this study was fundamentally based on the toponymy work of Dick (1990a, 1990b and 1996) and Seabra (2016). It was tested the hypothesis that there were relevant changes in the principles of structuring the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte during its first thirty years. The hypothesis was confirmed, since changes were found, in terms of principles, to be the relativization of the Principle of Uniqueness and the emergence of the Principle of Supletivity, Anthropotoponymic Vector, Biotopic Relationship and Resilience. Certain constants were also attested, such as the operation of the Principle of Limited Extension, Thematic Unity, Continuity and Legibility and the relativization of the Principle of Impersonality.

Toponymy; Historical Linguistics; Language Change; Belo Horizonte

RESUMO

No presente estudo, apresenta-se uma análise comparativa da toponímia do primeiro trintênio da Cidade de Belo Horizonte com base em plantas de dois períodos: o conjunto documental cartográfico relativo a 1895-1897, composto de quatro plantas, e a planta geral da Cidade de Belo Horizonte organizada pela 1ª Seção da Subdiretoria de Obras em 1928-1929. Do ponto de vista teórico, este estudo se baseou fundamentalmente nos trabalhos de toponímia de Dick (1990a, 1990b e 1996) e Seabra (2016). Testou-se a hipótese de que houve mudanças relevantes nos princípios de estruturação da toponímia da Cidade de Belo Horizonte durante seu primeiro trintênio. A hipótese foi confirmada, uma vez que se constataram como mudanças relevantes, em termos de princípios, a relativização do Princípio da Unicidade e a emergência do Princípio da Supletividade, do Vetor Antropotoponímico, da Relação Biotópica e da Resiliência. Atestaram-se também certas constantes, como a atuação do Princípio da Extensão Limitada, da Unidade Temática, da Continuidade e da Legibilidade e a relativização do Princípio da Impessoalidade.

Toponímia; Linguística Histórica; Mudança Linguística; Belo Horizonte

Introduction

The city of Belo Horizonte constitutes an unusual case in terms of toponymy, since it is a capital founded from a planning project at the end of the 19th century: the old Hamlet of Belo Horizonte that existed in the location in question was destroyed to make way for a new city. The toponymy of the then hamlet, spontaneously constituted through a centuries-old process of occupying the space, was abruptly replaced by a new system devised by the New Capital Construction Commission (CCNC), headed by the engineer Aarão Reis (1853-1936). There is, therefore, the singularity of having to name a large set of public places at once, which required Reis to adopt a range of principles for structuring this new toponymic set. The new capital underwent major transformations in the first thirty years of its existence, with great expansion due to new land subdivisions, which again required the simultaneous attribution of names to large number of public places. Would this new set of toponyms have followed the same range of toponymic structuring principles of Reis or would the great expansion of the city have required the adoption of new principles? This discussion is of great interest for toponymy studies not only because it allows us to demonstrate that toponymy has a systemic functioning (it is governed by principles), but also because it allows us to debate whether there are universal principles in structuring toponymy, which would transcend time and space.

To discuss the issue of the principles of structuring toponymy, in this study a comparative analysis of the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte is presented, based on cartographic records referring to the periods of 1895-1897 and 1928-1929.

Brief history of the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte

After the Proclamation of the Republic on November 15, 1889, a discussion arose about moving the capital of the then Province of Minas Gerais to a new location. Implementing the change required a complex process that involved the choice of a location, changes in the State Constitution, formation of a commission for the construction of the capital and, finally, the officialization of the transfer, which took place on December 12, 1897.¹

The toponymy of the new capital of the State was already included in the cartographic documental set forwarded by Reis in Official Letter No. 26, of March 23, 1895, and approved by Decree No. 817, of April 15, 1895. In this letter, Reis presents, in general terms, the system of toponyms proposed for the future capital:

The squares, avenues and streets have been named after cities, rivers, mountains, the most important historical dates of the State of Minas and the Union, as well as some citizens who, for their relevant services, deserve to be perpetuated in the people’s memory (Reis, 1895, p. 60, emphasis added).

This description was, in fact, partial,² because it referred mainly to the urban area of the city (which was within the limits of the then Avenida 17 de Dezembro) and, even in relation to it, it did not mention all the motivations of the toponyms (cases such as Praça da Liberdade and Avenida do Comércio, already present in the aforementioned set of documents, did not fit in the description).

In the thirty years following the inauguration of the new city, there was a huge population increase. According to data provided by Penna (1997), the city underwent a major demographic expansion between 1899 (date of the first data in that work) and 1929 (date of the last data), as can be seen in the graph below:

Graph 1
– Demographic increase in the city of Belo Horizonte (1899-1929)

From an estimated population of 12,000 on July 7, 1899, the figure reached 108,849 on December 31, 1929: an increase of 807% in thirty years. The percentage increase line shows an average of around 8% per year.

This demographic increase naturally had an impact on the structure of the city, requiring new allotments, new street arrangements and, consequently, new toponyms.

Although Reis’ letter revealed some of the motivations for assigning toponyms, his description did not precisely explain all the principles that had governed his choice. The lack of formalization of these principles may have been one of the reasons why the assignment of toponyms in the early days of the city of Belo Horizonte was quite unstable.

The most emblematic case was the revocation of almost all new toponyms assigned to the city streets between 1895 and 1919, carried out through Municipal Law No. 182, of October 13, 1919, whose Article 1 stated that “the nomenclature of streets, avenues and squares of the Capital is reestablished, in accordance with the plan approved by Decree No. 817, of April 15, 1895” (Belo Horizonte, 1919).

However, there are other significant cases of unstable behavior, such as the change from Avenida Brasil to Avenida Floriano Peixoto on June 29, 1898, which actually occurred (there was even an official ceremony), but, as it seems, not in law (to date, no normative act has been found that made the change official,³ which was expected to be a State Decree),⁴ and also the change from Praça 14 de Outubro to Praça 7 de Setembro on the occasion of the commemoration of the centenary of Brazil’s Independence (with the installation of an obelisk) on September 7, 1922, a change that was also not made through a specific normative act at that time.

Currently, the system of official naming of public property is regulated mainly by Municipal Law No. 9,691, of January 19, 2009, which has received several modifications since its promulgation. With specific regard to the naming of official public places (public road system)⁵ and open spaces for public use (such as squares, parks, among others), specific norms can be found in Articles 17, 21, 22, 28, 29 and 30 (Belo Horizonte, 2009).⁶

Examining these articles, it is possible to recognize that each norm is based on a more general principle of structuring the city’s toponymy. However, in a norm prior to 2009, Municipal Law No. 5,890, of October 14, 1991, three principles had already been explicitly stated in Article 8:

§ 1. Uniqueness is the requirement that a name is not given to more than one road in the territory of Belo Horizonte, whether these roads are of the same or different types, as listed in Article 4, with the sole exception of the hypothesis that these roads are a square and a circulation route.

§ 2. Universality is the requirement that all public roads in the city have their own name.

§ 3. Stability is the requirement to choose names that can be effectively accepted and used by the community, avoiding constant changes (Belo Horizonte, 1991).

Given the lack of a defined nomenclature for all principles in the field of toponymy studies, the following is a proposal⁷ to describe those found in Law No. 9,691, of January 19, 2009, currently in force:

1. Article 17 specifies the Principle of Limited Extension⁸(a toponym must have a short extension);

2. Item I of Article 21 expresses the Principle of Impersonality⁹ (a toponym must not refer to a living person);

3. Item II of Article 21 and Item II of Article 29 refer to the Principle of Morality¹⁰ (a toponym must not refer to a person who has engaged in reprehensible conduct);

4. Item III of Article 21 concerns the Principle of Significance¹¹ (a non-provisional toponym must have a meaning);

5. Item IV of Article 21 specifies the Principle of Legibility¹² (a toponym must be legible to the population);

6. Article 22 specifies the Principle of Uniqueness¹³ (a toponym must not present duplicity);

7. Article 28 deals with the Principle of Legality¹⁴ (a toponym is provisional until it is officially granted);

8. Articles 29 and 30 refer to the Principle of Stability¹⁵ (a toponym must be permanent, except in certain circumstances).¹⁶

It is important to highlight here the distinction between norm and principle: in the case of Article 17, the norm is that the toponym should have up to three words, but this norm is based on a principle of a more general and abstract nature that a toponym should have a limited extension. This same principle can be concretely implemented in different ways according to the urban policy of each city: one location may choose to set a limit of three words (as in the case of the city of Belo Horizonte), but another may, based on this same principle, opt for a limit of four words, but, in both cases, the Principle of Limited Extension is always observed. The same principle allows for different norms.

From a diachronic point of view, which is what this study adopts, it is of interest to understand how the structuring principles of urban toponymy were constituted, seeking to identify when each principle began to act on the formation of the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte and how they interact with each other to produce the result.

Regarding the first thirty years of the city of Belo Horizonte, it was not possible to identify the existence of a single piece of legislation that has formalized, in a unified and systematic way, principles along the lines of Law No. 9,691 of 2009. It is possible to verify, however, isolated and specific manifestations of some of them in certain normative acts during this period:

1. Municipal Law No. 42, of November 13, 1909, already affirmed the Principle of Stability¹⁷ and the Principle of Impersonality,¹⁸ but also enforced the Principle of Pertinence (a toponym must have a connection with the geography or history of the location) in the same article of the former;¹⁹

2. Municipal Law No. 182, of October 13, 1919, reinforced the Principle of Stability in the head of its Article 1, through the restoration of the toponyms of State Decree No. 817, of April 15, 1895 and affirmed the Principle of Uniqueness in the sole paragraph of that same article;²⁰

3. Municipal Decree No. 44, of September 7, 1929, established the Principle of Continuity (the same toponym must be applied to the entire route of a public road if it does not present interruptions).²¹

The historical dynamics of the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte clearly involved an interaction between its principles of structuring. As an example, it can be mentioned that the aforementioned revocation of the toponyms attributed to public places of the city between 1895 and 1919 made through Law No. 182 enforced the Principle of Stability, because many changes carried out in that period violated the Principle of Pertinence: for example, the change from Rua de Curityba to Rua General Mitre, made by Municipal Law No. 156, of October 31, 1918, paid homage to a historical figure²² with no direct relationship with the history of the city and with a very tangential relationship even considering the history of the Brazil.

In summary, it seems evident that, to understand the formation of toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte, it is necessary to go beyond the texts of the relevant norms, since they were very scarce in earlier times, and prioritize attention to the toponyms themselves, so that, from their analysis, it is possible to infer what the structuring principles of the city’s toponymy effectively were and how they interacted with each other. This study presents a comparative analysis of the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte based on cartographic records for the periods of 1895-1897 and 1928-1929 precisely to address this issue.

Toponomastics: fundamental concepts

Having as object of study the proper names of places, Toponomastics is a branch of Onomastics, an area of Linguistics that deals with proper names in general. The specific study of place names refers to the proper name either of a fountain, a stream, a small hill, or of a street, a city, a country or a continent. These names can come either from the general lexicon of the vernacular language or from words originating from other languages. They may not have a meaning today, but they certainly did in earlier times.

The set of proper names of places is called Toponymy. Toponymy is divided into: General Toponymy; Major Toponymy or Macrotoponymy (which studies the names of countries, regions, states, cities, important population centers, more relevant rivers and mountains); and Minor Toponymy or Microtoponymy (which deals with the names of fountains, water bodies, pasture areas of rural properties, etc.). This division, of synchronic nature, has its limits, since a macrotoponym in the past may have transformed into a microtoponym in the modern world; or, conversely, a microtoponym into a macrotoponym.

Attempts to identify more general patterns in structuring toponymy can already be seen in Dauzat’s study (1926). However, of particular interest here is the study by Backheuser (1949-1950), who, taking into account previous studies and observing Brazilian toponymy, established ten general precepts or laws for its structuring. For example, the 10th Law is that “the stability of the toponym varies in the sense of respect for the historical tradition possessed by each people “ (Backheuser, 1949-1950, p. 195). On the one hand, this study had the merit of pointing to the relevance of dealing with toponymy in terms of general precepts; on the other hand, it still presented remnants of the determinist conception of late 19th century, as it considered the precepts to be laws, suggesting that there were categorical behaviors for a process that presented a complex interaction between factors of various natures (political, cultural, social, etc.).

Urban Toponymy is the set of proper names of places of a city. The way they are treated is quite unique in terms of motivation, as Isquerdo (2023, p. 9) points out:

When it comes to urban toponymy, in general, the denominational conditions are of a very diverse and specific nature, often being imposed by public bodies, or even resulting from different interests, such as preferences of the owner of the allotted land (valorization of the family or some topic of particular interest to him/her...); paying homage to politicians, civil and religious authorities who played an important role in the city’s history. Thus, the urban toponyms, in general, incorporate references to historical facts and reveal the influences of economic and ideological factors related to the history of the formation of the village, town or city.

Hodonymy is the name given to the study of urban spaces, that is, the names of streets, avenues, squares, etc. Still little studied by researchers, hodonyms refer to circulation routes such as roads, shortcuts, streets, etc. In cities, hodonyms have the function of organizing urban space and promoting spatial orientation (specially for administrative control). As they are part of an environment where people live together (with all kinds of cultural plurality) in a restricted space, they deserve special attention, Badariotti (2016, p. 3) points out:

Hodonyms are a beautiful topic [...], beautiful, but difficult. In fact, since they moved beyond vernacular designation stage to the political designation stage, street names have become an immense informative framework for the cultural representations and symbols that our society seeks to promote. If we discard locally inspired names and those that are too insipid, valuing flowers, birds or varieties of trees, we have to recognize that it is not insignificant to name a street after “Joan of Arc”, a square after “Salvador Allende”, or giving the names of European cities to a neighborhood, as in Little Holland in Montbéliard or in the ZUP²³ in Colmar. It is therefore worth questioning the street designation process and its historical and geographical logics in forging the toponymic landscape of French cities.

As they constitute part of the linguistic landscape that accompanies the inhabitants of a city, one cannot deny the importance of the symbolic charge that these names evoke, as they are always visible and often transcend the simple role of referent, showing an “official” view of history, a fact that justifies the need for a diachronic study of these processes:

In fact, hodonyms allow us to question the representative themes of different eras, each one individually contributing to promoting the symbolism that each society wanted to display and perpetuate. Historical analysis then makes it possible to find the contexts in which hodonyms were created and to better understand the main naming logics used over time, clarifying the meaning of the symbols conveyed at the time (Badariotti, 2016, p. 3).

Because it is controlled by the administrative authorities, urban toponymy is subject to social and political influences that reflect changes over time. As symbols, some often have their semantic load erased, others are distorted, while many are charged of emotion, sometimes conflicting. It is necessary to pay attention to the value of traditional denominations that are gradually being lost and, along with them, historical memory: the memory of a past event is not built solely from memories, it is the product of a series of social constructions that involve government, different people and ideologies. Dick (1996, p. 133) points out that

[…] the street is the improved path, from the point of view of its morphology, and semantically, the street is a true microcosm within the larger organism of the urban agglomeration. The street bears witness to everything, in a complicit attitude of acceptance.

It is a fact that, in every city, there have been and will be changes in the naming of streets and squares; however, there are times when “renaming” is more frequent, coinciding with significant political-social changes shaped by societies.

For the study of toponymic change, Dauzat (1926, p. 45) states that there are two types: spontaneous and systematic. Spontaneous change occurs in the language naturally, for various reasons. Systematic change, on the other hand, is not unpretentious, but rather honorific, and generally evokes the names of illustrious people, authorities in a region, commemorative dates, being imposed with the aim of honoring someone or remembering some event.

Several recent works contemplating the study of the urban toponymy of cities in the state of Minas Gerais,²⁴ in which the city of Belo Horizonte, the object of this study, is located, have demonstrated that there is a prevalence of toponyms of anthropocultural nature, with emphasis on the taxon of anthropotoponyms (toponyms referring to people’s name).

Filgueiras (2011), in a study on the anthroponyms of Italian origin that name streets of the city of Belo Horizonte, concluded that, as it was a planned city, the building commission chose the nomenclature of the public places that fell within the initial city limits, but, subsequently, there were changes:

[…] The same did not happen with the street names that developed in the suburban area and in the settlements where, on many occasions, the choice of designations reflected the spontaneous attitude of the citizens who, by means of petitions, asked the legislature to adopt of certain names to designate the streets where they lived (Filgueiras, 2011, p. 334-335).

Streets, avenues, alleys and squares were the subject of the study by Gontijo (2017), who examined the toponymy of the city of Bom Despacho in Minas Gerais. Through the names of public places, it was possible to draw up a profile of the community studied, which, according to her analysis, presented itself as “patriarchal, valuing individuals with good social status and public and religious personalities, as well as other elements” (Gontijo, 2017, p. 8). She thus found that the city’s toponymic motivation is linked to the titles of influential people such as military, politicians, doctors and religious.

Anthropotoponyms were also highlighted in the study by Faria (2017), which considered the hodonymy of the city of Ponte Nova in Minas Gerais. Of the 549 urban places, 410 stand out because they are named after people.

In a study on public roads of the city of São João del-Rei in Minas Gerais, Macedo (2021) again found, as the main motivation for street names, tributes to people who stood out in their social roles in the municipality, state and country, whether politicians, military, religious people, commanders, counselors, ambassadors, doctors, teachers, musicians, engineers and workers.

The study by Silva (2021), which dealt with the hodonyms of the city of Betim in Minas Gerais, attested to the fact already pointed out by previous studies that toponyms motivated by people’s names tend to characterize, prototypically, the denomination of urban public spaces. It also showed the approximation between anthropotoponyms and axiotoponyms that result in cases of variation:

According to Preti (2004, p. 180), it is natural for each human being to assume a social position within a social group or several positions, when they participate in several groups, being, at the same time, the father in the family; the teacher, at school; the player, on the sports team; the preacher, in the church. Therefore, an interesting fact about axiotoponyms, or anthropo-axiotoponyms (Faria, 2017), is related to the paradigmatic choice of the axionym in the act of baptism. Considering the cases of variation that are explained by the absence or presence of the axionym in front of the anthroponym (Prefeito Sílvio Lobo < Sílvio Lobo), we realize that the denominator would have the option of honoring the individual Sílvio Lobo with or without a title or dignity. At the same time, considering the variations in the choice of the axionym (Prefeito Sílvio Lobo > Doutor Sílvio Lobo)²⁵, we realized that the denominator would have the option of honoring him, considering his political role in the city of Betim or considering his professional social role as lawyer (Silva, 2021, p, p. 369).

Mendes (2022) researched the names of the city of Pedro Leopoldo in Minas Gerais, which had its first settlements in the second half of the 19th century. Based on the anthropotoponyms selected for her study, she observed a great deal of diversification, paying homage to local people from different social strata. She identified that there was little variation in the names and that, when it did occur, “it was in the sense of changing more generic names or date names (such as Rua Várzea Formosa or Praça 31 de Março) for names of former residents of the city.” (Mendes, 2022, p. 13). Her results were compatible with the studies by Faria (2017) and Macedo (2021), with a predominance of place names referring to people:

[…] the result is that anthropotoponyms occupy first place in taxonomic classifications; anthropo-axiotoponyms are in second place; anthropo-historiotoponyms are in third place; and anthropo-axio-historiotoponyms are in fourth place in number of occurrences (Mendes, 2022, p. 714).

When it comes to the issue of changing the names of streets in this city, data from Mendes (2022) showed that the changes occurred, for the most part, from common names to proper names; from proper names to other proper names and from dates to proper names.

Mendes (2022) drew attention to the issue of honoring living people with street names, as, among her data, she found names of streets given to these people – the names of donors who allocated part of their land for opening of new streets and even a “football personality” (Dirceu Lopes), who names a street in the city center:

A specific law on the naming of public places was found on the Pedro Leopoldo City Council website, namely Law No. 3350, of November 18, 2013. It amended the previous Law, No. 2468, of November 12, 1999. The latest law stipulates that projects to name public places must be accompanied by documents proving the location of the road to be named in the municipality’s cadastral plan, and whether it is located in an urban or rural zone. There must also be negative certificates for the previous name and, in the case of a change in the previous name, there must be a signed petition in favor of the change. Finally, when the suggested denomination refers to the names of citizens, there must be “proof of the patron’s contribution to the economic, social and/or cultural enhancement and development of the municipality, demonstrated through a comprehensive and detailed curriculum vitae”. [...] It should be noted that no legal impediments were found in municipal law for paying homage to the living, when these public places were named. However, there is a federal law (Federal Law No. 6454, of October 24, 1977) that prohibits this type of action. No other municipal or federal laws were found, with the exception of those already mentioned, that deal with the topic (Mendes, 2022, p. 723-724).

An urban toponym can be considered a symbol, a geographic, environmental and also historical and social testimony of a time, of a society. There is no way to disregard the impacts of culture, and of social reality itself on the process of their formation, fixation and maintenance. Often, they are not easily identifiable, especially when rules for naming are not observed.

As “places of memory”, performing a utilitarian function, hodonyms constitute an important research topic that encompasses the collective memory of a city, mainly because, despite being exposed, printed on plaques, they are almost never transparent, since, without specific studies, we do not have access to the past, to the motivation that led the human being to the act of naming a certain urban space.

Working hypothesis

Considering that the strong expansion of the city of Belo Horizonte between 1895-1897 and 1928-1929, with an increase of more than 800% of its population, required the granting of a large number of toponyms simultaneously and repeatedly, it is possible to hypothesize that there were relevant changes in the principles of structuring the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte during its first thirty years, in order to meet these demands.

Possibly two other factors must have contributed to the greater flexibility in the range of principles that governed the process of granting names to publics (roads, spaces, etc.): firstly, the fact that the first thirty years of the city’s organization were in the process of being set up, as well as the determination of the attributions of each component of its organizational structure; and, secondly, the fact that the legal diplomas referring to the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte in the early days of its history rarely explicitly set out the principles that governed the granting process that was actually carried out.

Methodology

The analysis of the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte in the present study was carried out through a comparison of toponyms on city plans in two time frames.

The first frame refers to the period of 1895-1897 (henceforth, CDC1895-97). On April 15, 1895, through State Decree No. 817, the “general and definitive plan of the city of – Minas – future Capital of the State of Minas Geraes” was approved (Minas Gerais, 1895). This approval referred to a set of four cartographic documents, only three of which have their location known today: (a) SA 203, Public Archive of Minas Gerais (APM); (b) AI.01.06.00-391, Public Archive of the city of Belo Horizonte (APCBH); and (c) CC Dt 06 009, Abílio Barreto Historical Museum (MHAB). The fourth document, today with no known location, would have been the model for the plan printed at a scale of 1:10,000 by the Companhia de Artes Gráficas do Brasil, of which a copy is document CC Dt 06 008 of the MHAB, datable to 1897²⁶ (see Figure 1). In a previous analysis of the toponyms only in the urban zone of the city, Cambraia and Seabra (2022a) found the existence of variation, which is why it is recommended to work with the entire set of accessible documents mentioned in order to properly understand the inventory of toponyms planned for the city. It is important to highlight that the toponyms of this set of documents were just a projection, because they referred to a project for the city, and not to a description of how the city had already been physically configured.

Figure 1
– General plan of the city of Minas organized on the geodesic, topographical and cadastral plan of Bello Horisonte, datable to 1897 (CC Dt 06 008, MHAB)

The second frame refers to the period of 1928-1929 (henceforth, P1928-29). The option for this second frame is due to the existence of a general plan of the city of Belo Horizonte, organized by the 1st Section of the Sub-Directorate of Works in 1928-1929, on a 1:5,000 scale, at APCBH, in an excellent state of conservation and already digitized²⁷ (see Figure 2). A second reason to consider this frame is that it was a moment in the city’s history in which the former colonies had already been incorporated into the city’s suburban zone (a process that took place between 1911 and 1923) and the construction of worker’s villages in the city had already been authorized (a process that began in 1919), events that significantly changed the city’s toponymic landscape due to new street arrangements. The toponymic state (organization of toponymy in a given synchrony) of this plan reflects a time span between (a) January 10, 1929, as it already shows the land subdivision of the upper part of the current Bairro Coração de Jesus (CP 042-010-G), with their respective toponyms, and (b) February 9, 1929, since it does not yet show the land subdivision of the lower part of the same neighborhood (CP 042-005-G) and, therefore, without the respective toponyms.

Figure 2
– General Plan of the City of Bello Horizonte, dated 1928-1929 (AP.00.00.00/SMC, APCBH)

Once the plans for the toponymic study had been established, the forms of toponyms in each one were collected, classified in terms of motivations, based on the models of Dick (1990 a, 1990b, 1996) and Seabra (2016)²⁸ and, finally, a comparative analysis was carried out to assess the validity of the formulated working hypothesis. For the classification of chorotoponyms (a category of great importance in the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte), the main reference was the administrative division of the state established by State Law No. 843, of September 7, 1923: it contains 214 municipalities and 894 districts (each municipality has a district with the same name as the municipality).

Presentation and discussion of data

After data collection, it was possible to determine the following distribution of toponyms in the plans of the city of Belo Horizonte:

The first aspect that stands out is the remarkable expansion of toponyms in the plans: from 289 to 729, an increase of 152.3%. These data suggest, however, a strong increase in geographic density: the population had increased eightfold in the first thirty years, but place names, and therefore public places, increased only one and a half times in that period.

The second evident fact is that the urban zone underwent changes, but on a much smaller scale, which is explained, in part, by being limited to the interior of the former Avenida 17 de Dezembro (today, Avenida do Contorno), and thus unable to expand with new public places and receive so many new toponyms.

In order to more qualitatively assess the relationship between the toponyms of CDC1895-97 and P1928-1929, it is worth considering the question of their motivation.

In the Reis’ system, the distribution of toponyms presented the following pattern in terms of motivation:³¹

There are two particularly interesting aspects in this distribution: firstly, the three most frequent motivations are chorotoponyms (37.7%), lithotoponyms (28.6%) and historiotoponyms (13.8%); and, secondly, there are some motivations specific to each zone, since, in the urban zone, there are no lithotoponyms, cardinotoponyms and meteorotoponyms, and, in the suburban zone, there are no ethnotoponyms, animotoponyms and sociotoponyms. It is interesting to see, therefore, that the urban zone encompasses more anthropocultural motivations, while the suburban zone presents more physical motivations: this division seems to reflect Reis’ conception that the urban zone was reserved for social life and the suburban zone for supply (as this is where the farms with vegetable plantations for the city would be located).

Turning to the data relating to P1928-29, it is possible to verify the following distribution in terms of motivations:

Comparing tables 2 and 3, it is possible to verify continuities and innovations.

Table 2
– Toponyms of the City of Belo Horizonte by motivation: CDC1895-97 34

	Urban Zone32				Suburban Zone				Total 3
Motivation	Square	Avenue	Street	Total 1	Square	Avenue	Street	Total 2
1. Chorotoponyms	2	1	25	28	—	—	81	81	109 (37.7%)
2. Lithotoponyms	—	—	—	—	7	—	79	86	86 (29.8%)
3. Historiotoponyms	13	4	19	36	—	—	1	1	37 (12.8%)
3.1. Anthropotoponyms	[4]	[3]	[19]	[26]	—	—	[1]	[1]	[28] (9.3%)
3.2. Event dates	[9]	[1]	—	[10]	—	—	—	—	[10] (3.5%)
4. Hydrotoponyms	—	10	6	16	—	—	3	3	19 (6.6%)
5. Ethnotoponyms	—	—	13	13	—	—	—	—	13 (4.5%)
6. Geomorphotoponyms	—	2	2	4	—	1	5	6	10 (3.5%)
7. Animotoponyms	4	1	1	6	—	—	—	—	6 (2.1%)
8. Sociotoponyms	3	2	—	5	—	—	—	—	5 (1.7%)
9. Cardinotoponyms	—	—	—	—	—	—	2	2	2 (0.7%)
10. Meteorotoponyms	—	—	—	—	—	—	2	2	2 (0.7%)
Total	22	20	66	108	7	1	173	181	289 (100%)

Source: Own elaboration.

Table 3
– Toponyms of the city of Belo Horizonte by motivation: P1928-29

	Urban Zone				Suburban Zone				Total3
Motivation	Square	Avenue	Street	Total1	Square	Avenue	Street	Total2
1. Chorotoponyms	1	1	31	33	5	3	303	311	344 (47.2%)
2. Lithotoponyms	—	—	—	—	—	—	83	83	83 (11.4%)
3. Historiotoponyms	9	6	19	34	6	9	138	153	187 (25.7%)
3.1. Anthropotoponyms	[2]	[5]	[19]	[26]	[3]	[8]	[136]	[149]	[173] (23.7%)
3.2. Event dates	[7]	[1]	[0]	[8]	[3]	[1]	[2]	[6]	[14] (1.9%)
4. Hydrotoponyms	—	9	4	13	—	1	13	14	27 (3.7%)
5. Ethnotoponyms	—	—	13	13	—	—	—	—	13 (1.8%)
6. Geomorphotoponyms	—	2	1	3	—	1	8	9	12 (1.6%)
7. Animotoponyms	2	1	—	3	—	—	1	1	4 (0.5%)
8. Sociotoponyms	2	1	—	3	—	—	2	2	5 (0.7%)
9. Cardinotoponyms	—	—	—	—	—	—	4	4	4 (0.5%)
10. Meteorotoponyms	—	—	—	—	—	—	2	2	2 (0.3%)
11. Phytotoponyms	—	—	—	—	—	—	32	32	32 (4.4%)
12. Zootoponyms	—	—	—	—	—	—	7	7	7 (1.0%)
13. Hagiotoponyms	—	—	—	—	—	—	6	6	6 (0.8%)
14. Hodotoponyms	—	—	—	—	—	—	1	1	1 (0.1%)
15. Alphatoponyms	—	—	—	—	—	—	2	2	2 (0.3%)
Total	14	20	68	102	11	14	602	627	729 (100%)

Source: Own elaboration.

On the one hand, the main matrix in CDC1895-97 – the prioritization of chorotoponyms (37.7%) – is also seen in P1928-29, with 47.2%, which means continuity in the system of structuring the city’s toponymy. It should be noted that, while, in CDC1895-97, 85 chorotoponyms out of 109 refer to locations in the State of Minas Gerais (78% of the total in this category), in P1928-29 there are 278 (89.4%) out of 311: thus, the weight of the State in this set increased.³³

On the other hand, it can be seen that, during the period analyzed, there were several interesting innovations:

1. toponyms for categories that did not yet exist in CDC1895-97 appeared in P1928-29: phytotoponyms (e.g., Rua Hortencia), zootoponyms (e.g., Rua Tuyuyú), hagiotoponyms (e.g., Rua São Raphael), hodotoponyms (e.g., Rua do Ramal) and alphatoponyms (e.g., Rua A);

2. the hierarchy chorotoponyms (37.7%) > lithotoponyms (29.8%) > historiotoponyms (12.8%) in CDC1895-97 gave way to chorotoponyms (47.2%) > historiotoponyms (25.7%) > lithotoponyms (11.4%) in P1928-29, that is, lithotoponyms lost space in favor of historiotoponyms;

3. the division between patterns typical of the urban zone as opposed to those of the suburban zone became less rigorous, since animotoponyms and sociotoponyms, which, in CDC1895-97, were restricted to the urban zone, also appeared in the suburban zone in P1928 -29 (e.g., respectively, Rua Felicidade and Rua das Officinas);

4. lithotoponyms, which were present in squares and streets in the suburban zone in CDC1895-97, were restricted only to streets in that same zone in P1928-29.

Having identified the main characteristics of the distribution of toponyms in the city of Belo Horizonte in terms of motivation, contrasting CDC1895-97 and P1928-29, it is then possible to move on to the central question of the present study: the principles that governed each one of these two systems.

A first principle that can be seen in both systems is the aforementioned Principle of Limited Extension. An analysis of the extension of all toponyms in both CDC1895-97 and P1928-29, in terms of number of lexical items,³⁴ clearly shows the action of this principle, as can be seen in the tables below:

In both systems, the length of just one lexical item is predominant, generally decreasing in frequency as the number of lexical items increases.³⁵ It is this principle that explains the absence of toponyms linked to long names of location, such as Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Carrancas (7 lexical items: Nossa + Senhora + de + a + Conceição + de + Carrancas). Furthermore, there are toponyms that are an abbreviation for a location with a longer name: thus, the reference to the location of São Joaquim da Serra Negra (6 items: São + Joaquim + de + a + Serra + Negra) is simply made as Rua Serra Negra (2 items: Serra + Negra) in P1928-29.

A second pertinent principle is the Principle of Uniqueness, already mentioned. In CDC1895-97, there is no case of two or more public places of a given type with the same name: there are only cases such as Praça da Liberdade × Rua da Liberdade and Avenida Parahybuna × Rua Parahybuna, that is, public places with the same nucleous, but of different types. In this system, whenever possible, the same name was avoided even for public places of different types: the avenues are named after rivers (such as Avenida Amazonas) and the streets on the southeast-northwest axis are named after the States of Brazil (such as Rua Maranhão). So, to avoid Rua Amazonas (with an element that was already part of the name of an avenue), Rua Manaos (name of the capital of the State in question) was adopted. In the case of P1928-29, this principle is evident, but not categorically, because there are three repeated toponyms (in the universe of 729 toponyms), but in different neighborhoods: Rua Itapemirim (one in the then Parque do Cruzeiro do Sul, today Bairro Saudade,³⁶ and another in the 8th Suburban Section, today Bairro Serra); Rua Porto Alegre (one in the then Villa Palmital, today Bairro Santo André,³⁷ and another in the then Ex-Colônia Carlos Prates, today Bairro Carlos Prates); and Avenida Almirante Tamandaré (one in the then Parque Vera Cruz, today Bairro Vera Cruz,³⁸ and another in the then 3rd Suburban Section, today Bairro Gutierrez). In the case of Rua Porto Alegre, there is a coincidence in name, but not in motivation: in Villa Palmital, the street is in the set of chorotoponyms that cover Brazilian capitals (e.g., Rua Aracajú, Rua Victoria, etc.), but, in the Ex-Colônia Carlos Prates, it is in the set of chorotoponyms that include cities in Minas Gerais (Rua Rio Casca, Rua Prados, among others) and there is a city in Minas Gerais with the name of Porto Alegre. Despite these three exceptions, the principle explains the vast majority of toponyms and even these three ended up having one of the repetitions replaced by another name at a later time, which reiterates the action of the principle.³⁹

A third relevant principle is the Principle of Thematic Unity (toponyms of a new land subdivision must present thematic unity, that is, motivation of the same nature). This principle, in a way, was already present in CDC1895-97, because toponyms with similar motivation generally occurred nearby (e.g., names of Brazilian States in sequence on the southeast-northwest axis, names of inconfidentes in sequence at the top of the southwest-northeast axis and names of indigenous ethnicities in sequence at the base of this axis). In P1928-29, this principle continued to operate in the new land subdivisions: e.g., Villa Independência and Villa Esplanada (which shared many streets) with phytotoponyms (Rua Violetas, Rua Boninas, etc.); 3rd Suburban Section with military anthropotoponyms (Rua Marechal Bittencourt, Rua Cel. Gomes Carneiro, Avenida Almirante Alexandrino, etc.); among others. In the case of P1928-29, this principle seems to have had less force than others, because the presence of a toponym of another motivation within these subdivisions is not uncommon. As it has not yet been possible to know the exact date of attribution of each toponym to date, it is possible to imagine that these discrepant cases are the result of attribution to a street that already had another name at the time of the initial subdivision or even a new street after the initial subdivision (a very common fact along the occupation of the city).

A fourth principle, linked to the previous one, is the Principle of Supletivity (the absence of a toponym of a theme must be overcome by adopting a related toponym). The most obvious example of this principle is that of Villas Edgard Werneck and São João (which shared many streets). The theme of these subdivisions followed the general orientation of attributing chorotoponyms related to cities in Minas Gerais, but with the specificity of being cities named after a saint: some toponyms are simply formed by the full name of the city (Rua São Luiz, Rua São Roque, Rua São Joaquim and Rua Santo Amaro), but others, in compliance with the Principle of Limited Extension, were formed by abbreviation – the many cities with São Sebastião in the name (e.g., São Sebastião da Estrela, São Sebastião do Alto Capim, São Sebastião da Encruzilhada, etc.) were honored with simply Rua São Sebastião –, as is also the case with Rua São Jerônimo, Rua São Vicente and Rua São José. Having apparently considered the options for names of cities in Minas Gerais that are names of saints to be exhausted, then names of saints that are not part of the name of any city in Minas Gerais were used, as was the case of Rua São Bento, Rua São Marcos, Rua São Agostinho and Rua São Matheus: these are, therefore, supplementary forms in the neighborhoods in question (they are names of saints, but not names of cities in Minas Gerais) to fill the gap generated by the requirement of the Principle of Thematic Unity. The toponym Rua São Gothardo, in the 7th Suburban Section, which is directly in contact with the two neighborhoods considered, reinforces the idea that the names of saints in these neighborhoods were motivated by being names of a city in Minas Gerais: this is a very particular saint for may have been chosen simply considering the category of hagiotoponym, which is why it is considered that it was chosen precisely because it is a chorotoponym (since it is the name of a city in Minas Gerais).

A fifth important principle is the Principle of Anthropotoponymic Vector (new toponyms must be in the direction of anthropotoponyms). As already noted, lithotoponyms and historiotoponyms changed order from CDC1895-97 (2nd and 3rd place) to P1928-29 (3rd and 2nd place), that is, there was an increase in the presence of these in relation to those. But, within the class of historiotoponyms, it is precisely in the subclass of anthropotoponyms in which there was the most significant increase in this case: from 9.3% in CDC1895-97 to 23.7% in P1928-29, a difference of 14.4 percentage points, a value very similar to the drop in lithotoponyms, which went from 29. 8% to 11.4% (with a difference of 18.4 p.p.). It is not, however, a question of replacing lithotoponyms from the first period (with 86 items) with anthropotoponyms in the second (with 83 items that are lithotoponyms), since what happened was essentially a change in prioritization: new public places were not, in general, names of minerals, but of people. It is interesting to note that this principle had an impact on the performance of the Principle of Limited Extension: toponyms with extension 2 went from 14.9% in CDC1895-97 to 29.9% in P1928-29. This occurred because anthropotoponyms are rarely composed of just one lexical item, as a single lexical item (e.g., the given name) is generally not enough to make the reference to a specific person clear, requiring a second item (the family name), as in the form Rua David Campista present in P1928-29 (unlike rare cases such as Rua Tiradentes, Rua Anhanguera, Rua Caramurú, etc.).

Linked to the previous principle, there is the Principle of Biotopic Relationship (anthropotoponym must be attributed to a street with a link to the biography of the person being honored). This principle is also related to the Principle of Pertinence, already mentioned before. Therefore, it is not enough for the honoree to have some type of relationship with the history of the city or the country (Principle of Pertinence), it is also necessary that the public asset which will receive the name have some type of relationship with the biography of the honoree (Principle of Biotopic Relationship). The aforementioned change from Avenida Brasil to Avenida Floriano Peixoto, on June 29, 1898, which would have been the first of all in the history of the city of Belo Horizonte, consists of a case of this nature: the honoree, Floriano Peixoto⁴⁰, was a military man who held the Presidency of Brazil between November 23, 1891 and November 15, 1894 and Avenida Brasil begins at the then Headquarter of the 1st Battalion, an institution of military nature⁴¹. The next change was the one of Avenida da Liberdade to Avenida João Pinheiro (State Decree No. 2276, of October 29, 1908), in honor of João Pinheiro⁴². The biotopic relationship consists of the fact that the Palácio da Liberdade, headquarters of the State government, is at the end of the then Avenida da Liberdade and João Pinheiro was President of the State between February 10 and July 20, 1890 and between September 7, 1906 and October 25, 1908 (he died during his term in office).

Another interesting component is the Principle of Continuity, already mentioned. This principle was already observed in CDC1895-97, since the presence of an interruption in the route of a street justified different names for each section: this was the case with Rua Antonio d’Albuquerque, which became Rua Nunes Vieira after the interruption for a planned zoo, but, as it was not implemented, the interruption disappeared and the final section, corresponding to Rua Nunes Vieira, took the name of its initial part, which was Rua Antonio d’Albuquerque⁴³, as seen in P1928-29.

With regard to the Principle of Impersonality, it has already been mentioned that it was confirmed in Article 3 of Municipal Law No. 42, of November 13, 1909. Thus, in CDC1895-97, this principle was not strictly observed, as Avenida Afonso Penna appears, honoring, in a unique case, a then-living politician⁴⁴, who had been President of the State between 1892 and 1894. In the case of P1928-29, the analysis is more complex, because it was not possible to find all the normative acts that granted anthropotoponyms, which prevents us from knowing the precise relationship between the date of death of the honored person and the date of granting of the toponym. Considering the year 1929 as a reference date, it is possible to see that the principle was still not strictly observed, since, out of 163 anthropotoponyms⁴⁵ whose date of death of the person being honored, it was possible to recover, in at least 11, the honoree was still alive in 1929 (e.g., Rua Nery Ferreira, referring to the railway engineer of the same name, who died in 1931; Rua Aarão Reis, referring to the CCNC engineer, who died in 1936; R. Adelaide Bias Fortes, referring to the wife of Chrispim Bias Fortes, who was President of the State between 1890 and 1891 and between 1894 and 1898, who died in 1947; among others).

The Principle of Legibility can be recognized as operating in both CDC1895-97 and P1928-29. In the first case, there is no toponym in a foreign language, with the exception of surnames (e.g., Praça Benjamin Constant and Rua dos Ottoni), beeing the complicated lithotoponyms in their Portuguese form, as well as the ethnotoponyms. Also in the second case, the situation remains the same, despite there being some surnames with more complex spelling (e.g., Rua Francisco Soucasaux and Rua Carlos Niemeyer). In no case is there a toponym that is composed of a common noun in a foreign language, as in the case of Argollostrasse ("Argollo Street") in southern Brazil, mentioned by Dick (1988, p. 88).

Finally, there is also the Principle of Resilience (different types of public places present different degrees of resilience to toponymic change). The analysis of this principle in the period between 1895-97 and 1928-29 is complex, because, as CDC1895-97 is only a projection, there was not, in the first thirty years, a street arrangement exactly as imagined: there is, therefore, no perfect identity between the planned and implemented street arrangement, especially in relation to the suburban zone. Adapting Cambraia e Seabra (2022b)’s table, originally from the period of 1895-2022, to the first thirty years and restricting the analysis to the urban zone (whose street arrangement remained largely the same during the period), we have the following distribution:

As can be seen in table 6, there are different degrees of resilience: toponyms of squares (45.5% of maintenance) have less resilience than the ones of avenues (85%), which, in turn, have a lower value than the ones of streets (92.4%)⁴⁷. It can be seen from the table that a considerable portion of toponyms of squares (40.9%) were not applied and this is due to the fact that, in most cases, the square was not implemented as such, but rather as regular block: thus, the vulnerability of the toponyms of squares arises above all from the vulnerability of the square itself, which would be considered less vital for the city. Comparing data on avenues and streets, it can be seen that the replacement of toponyms in the former is more frequent than in the latter: this must be due to avenues having greater visibility, which makes them more “vulnerable” to public acts (just remember here that the first change in relation to CDC1895-97 was precisely on Avenida Brasil).

Table 6
– Toponyms in the urban zone of Belo Horizonte by destination: CDC1895-97 × P1928-29

	Square	Avenue	Street	Total
Maintenance	10 (45.5%)	17 (85%)	61 (92.4%)	88 (81.5%)
Replacement 46	3 (13.7%)	3 (15%)	4 (6.1%)	10 (9.25%)
Non-application	9 (40.9%)	—	1 (1.5%)	10 (9.25%)
Total	22 (100%)	20 (100%)	66 (100%)	108 (100%)

Source: Own elaboration.

The process of structuring the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte can be explained, to a large extent, based on the interaction between these principles. There is, for example, no change in the period analyzed from a square named after a person to another named after a city: this change clashes with the Principle of Anthropotoponymic Vector. There is no toponym with more than 5 lexical items, because such a name would conflict with the Principle of Limited Extension.

The present study was based on the working hypothesis that there were relevant changes in the principles of structuring the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte during its first thirty years. The data analyzed confirmed this hypothesis, since there were indeed relevant changes.

A first change was the relativization of the Principle of Uniqueness: while in CDC1895-97 there is no case of two or more public places of a given type with the same name, in P1928-29 three appeared. It is quite possible that the expansion of the allotted space in the city may have favored the relativization of this principle: as the duplicate names were attributed to regions distant from each other, the possibility of ambiguity in the reference was thus reduced.

Another interesting change was the emergence of the Principle of Supletivity: while in CDC1895-97 all toponyms of the same theme are strictly linked to it, in P1928-29 there are cases of hagiotoponyms recruited to fill gaps relating to the theme of chorotoponyms that are names of saints.

With regard to the Principle of Anthropotoponymic Vector, which is diachronic in nature (as it concerns the direction of toponymic change), its action could only be considered here in CDC1895-97 indirectly, basically taking into account the frequency of anthropotoponyms, which is quite timid (only 9.3% of the set), but, in the comparison between CDC1895-97 and P1928-29, its emergence is quite visible, as it went from 9.3% in the first period to 23.7 % in the second (see tables 2 and 3): this is, therefore, a relevant change.

Another principle that emerged in the first thirty years was the Principle of Biotopic Relationship, since, in CDC1895-97, no public place has a link with the biography of the person honored, and, in P1928-29, there are several cases, such as the one already mentioned of Avenida João Pinheiro. The absence of this principle in CDC1895-97 arises from the fact that, as the city was entirely new, it would be very difficult to relate the person honored and the public place. One could, however, have called Avenida Afonso Pena, the one that would end at the Palácio da Liberdade (headquarters of the State government), due to the fact that Afonso Pena had been President of the State (although in a period before the foundation of the new capital), but this was not done, so the biotopic relationship was not considered in CDC1895-97.

The Principle of Resilience is also diachronic and, in this case, it is not possible to evaluate it in CDC1895-97 even indirectly: the most that can be verified is that there were fewer squares than avenues and fewer avenues than streets. Compared to P1928-29, its emergence is clear, as seen in the data in table 6.

However, there were also certain continuities. The Principle of Limited Extension is clearly active in both time frames, as seen in tables 5 and 6: toponyms of extension 1 were the most frequent in both cases. The Principle of Thematic Unity is evident in both time frames: just remember the theme of anthropotoponyms restricted to the urban zone and the theme of lithotoponyms restricted to the suburban zone, both in CDC1895-97, as well as the theme of phytotoponyms in Villas Independência and Esplanada in P1928-29. The Principle of Continuity is also seen in the two analyzed time frames, although it was less active in CDC1895-97 than in P1928-29, as Avenida Christovão Colombo was interrupted by Praça de Liberdade in the first and still had that name for its section after this interruption, a situation that appears solved in the second, with the renaming of this final section as Avenida Bias Fortes. The Principle of Legibility is present in the two time frames in question, as words in a foreign language that were not the surnames of honorees were avoided. Finally, the relativization of the Principle of Impersonality was maintained, since in both frames there are toponyms referring to a person then alive, but it is a fact that, in CDC1895-97, it was more observed (because there was only one case among 289 toponyms, that is, 0.4%) than in P1928-29 (with 11 cases among 729 toponyms, that is, 1.5%).

Table 5
– Toponyms of the city of Belo Horizonte by extension: P1928-29

	Urban Zone				Suburban Zone				Total 3
Extension	Square	Avenue	Street	Total 1	Square	Avenue	Street	Total 2
1	4	13	40	57	3	4	376	383	440 (60.3%)
2	3	6	21	30	4	6	178	188	218 (29.9%)
3	7	1	5	13	4	3	36	43	56 (7.7%)
4	—	—	—	—	—	1	12	13	13 (1.8%)
5	—	—	2	2	—	—	—	—	2 (0.3%)
Total	14	20	68	102	11	14	602	627	729 (100%)

Source: Own elaboration.

Final considerations

In the present study, a comparative analysis of the toponymy of the first thirty years of the city of Belo Horizonte was presented based on plans from two periods: the cartographic documental set relating to 1895-1897, and the general plan of the city of Belo Horizonte from 1928-1929. It was tested the hypothesis that there were relevant changes in the principles of structuring the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte during its first thirty years. The hypothesis was confirmed, as relevant changes were found, in terms of principles, to be the relativization of the Principle of Uniqueness and the emergence of the Principle of Supletivity, Anthropotoponymic Vector, Biotopic Relationship and Resilience. Certain constants were also attested, such as the performance of the Principle of Limited Extension, Thematic Unity, Continuity and Legibility and the relativization of the Principle of Impersonality.

Far from having the intention of exhausting the topic, the present study simply aimed to present a new way of interpreting the process of structuring urban toponymy, based on the identification of principles. We hope to have demonstrated that the study of urban toponymy can be productively carried out, assuming a more systemic perspective, treating the structuring of toponymy as a process governed by principles that present a complex interaction relationship. Such principles emerged, in many cases, before being laid down in the form of normative acts (as was what happened with the initial toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte, between 1895 and 1897). It is not unlikely that processes of a similar nature⁵⁰ will also be observed in other locations, but it is certainly of great interest to deepen in the future into the study of the toponymy of the city of Belo Horizonte itself, considering new time frames to identify the emergence (or suppression) of principles and new relationships of checks and balances that appear as a result of these changes.

The in-depth study of the structuring principles of urban toponymy will allow us to understand not only internal and systemic aspects, but also the worldviews that each society assumes over time. As an example of this relationship, it is enough to remember that, in the aforementioned Municipal Law No. 9,691, of 2009, the one currently in force, the Principle of Legibility has as a normative realization that the use of “foreign words, expressions or names that make legibility and assimilation by the population difficult, except when adapted to the spelling of the Latin or Anglo-Saxon language” (Article 21, item IV): this norm gives a special place to Anglo-Saxon culture in the city’s toponymic heritage, something that can only be understood taking into account American cultural domination over the West since the Second World War. In the end, the principles of structuring toponymy ultimately carry values that reflect the history of a society.

Table 1
– Toponyms in the plans of the city of Belo Horizonte

	CDC1895-9729				P1928-2930
	Square	Avenue	Street	Total	Square	Avenue	Street	Total
Urban Section	22	20	66	108	14	20	68	102
Suburban Section	7	1	173	181	11	14	602	627
Total	29	21	239	289	25	34	670	729

Source: Own elaboration.

Table 4
– Toponyms of the city of Belo Horizonte by extension: CDC1895-97

	Urban Zone				Suburban Zone				Total 3
Extension	Square	Avenue	Street	Total 1	Square	Avenue	Street	Total 2
1	9	15	39	63	7	1	156	164	227 (78.5%)
2	4	4	20	28	—	—	15	15	43 (14.9%)
3	9	1	5	15	—	—	1	1	16 (5.5%)
4	—	—	—	—	—	—	1	1	1 (0.3%)
5	—	—	2	2	—	—	—	—	2 (0.7%)
Total	22	20	66	108	7	1	173	181	289 (100%)

Source: Own elaboration.

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• MINAS GERAIS. Decreto n° 2.276, de 29 de outubro de 1908. Dá à Avenida da Liberdade o nome de Avenida João Pinheiro. Disponível em: https://www.almg.gov.br/legislacao-mineira/DEC/2276/1908 Acesso em: 30 jun. 2023.
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• REIS, A. Officio n.26 de 23 de Março de 1895, apresentando ao Governo as plantas da cidade. Revista Geral dos Trabalhos: Publicação Periodica, Descriptiva e Estatistica, Feita com Autorisação do Governo do Estado, Belo Horizonte, v.2, p.59-60, 1895. Disponível em: http://memoria.bn.br/DOCREADER/339997/160 Acesso em: 30 jun. 2023.
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• 1
  For a more detailed description, see Barreto (1996).
• 2
  A more comprehensive description can be found in the section of data presentation and discussion of the present study.
• 3
  There is no law or decree in 1898 referring to this change (Minas Gerais, 1899).
• 4
  This is what was stated in news published at the time in the official government periodical (Minas Gerais, 1898, p. 6).
• 5
  In the present study, a distinction is made between name attribution and name granting: in the first case, the term refers to any process in which a name is attributed, whether spontaneously or officially; in the second case, the term only refers to the attribution of a name officially, that is, by normative act.
• 6
  In the citations below extracted from the aforementioned law, the most recent wording is adopted, with the integration of modifications made by subsequent laws.
• 7
  The principles listed below are just a sample, since there are other recent legal diplomas that also deal with the issue of granting a name to public asset.
• 8
  “Article 17. The name granted to the public asset and to the passage may contain up to 3 (three) words, excluding grammatical particles” (Belo Horizonte, 2009).
• 9
  “Article 21. It is prohibited to name public asset, passage and neighborhood: I. with the name of a living person” (Belo Horizonte, 2009).
• 10
  “Article 21. It is prohibited to name public asset, passage and neighborhood: [...] II. with the name of a person who has been judicially convicted of a heinous crime, of crime against the democratic state, the public administration or individual rights” and “Article 29. It is prohibited to modify a name that has been officially granted more than 10 (ten) years ago to public asset, passage and neighborhood, except in the case: [...] III. where the name of the public asset mentions or pays homage to authors of serious violations of human rights during the period of the military dictatorship or mentions the dates relating to it” (Belo Horizonte, 2009).
• 11
  “Article 21. It is prohibited to name public asset, passage and neighborhood: [...] III. with isolated letters or in sets that do not form logical content, or with numbers not considered in expressions relating to dates, except in cases of provisional names provided for in Article 28 of this Law” (Belo Horizonte, 2009).
• 12
  “Article 21. It is prohibited to name public asset, passage and neighborhood: [...] IV. with foreign words, expressions or names that make legibility and assimilation by the population difficult, except when adapted to the spelling of the Latin or Anglo-Saxon language” (Belo Horizonte, 2009).
• 13
  “Article 22. Duplicity of denomination of public asset is prohibited” (Belo Horizonte, 2009).
• 14
  “Article 28. Until the name is officially granted, the official street and passage will be identified by a provisional denomination assigned by the Executive” (Belo Horizonte, 2009).
• 15
  “Article 29. It is prohibited to modify a name that has been officially granted more than 10 (ten) years ago to public asset, passage and neighborhood, except in the case of duplicity of name or of the provisions of Item II of Article 21 of this Law” (Belo Horizonte, 2009).
• 16
  As the granting of names to public asset is carried out by the public administration, it is only natural that the principles of structuring urban toponymy have great affinity with the principles of public administration in general described in Article 37 of the Federal Constitution: legality, impersonality, morality, publicity and efficiency (Brasil, 1988).
• 17
  “Article 2. The names of streets and avenues cannot be changed from now on, as long as these names refer to our chorography or our national history” (Belo Horizonte, 1909).
• 18
  “Article 3. No street, avenue or square and no public building may be named after citizens who are still alive” (Belo Horizonte, 1909).
• 19
  It is interesting to note that, some time later, there was a relativization of this norm, allowing more clearly the homage to foreigners: “Article 1. The mayor is authorized to give public places, not yet named, the names of illustrious Brazilians and foreigners, now deceased.” (Belo Horizonte, 1937).
• 20
  “Article 1. The nomenclature of the streets, avenues and squares of the Capital is reestablished, in accordance with the plan approved by Decree No. 817, of April 15, 1895. Sole paragraph. The name of Avenida João Pinheiro will remain, as this avenue is linked to Praça da Liberdade, the name identical to that given to this avenue in the plan approved by the aforementioned decree.” (Belo Horizonte, 1919).
• 21
  “Considering that Avenida Christovam Colombo starting from Avenida do Contorno is interrupted by Palácio da Liberdade building, decree: Article 1. The section of Avenida Christovam Colombo that, starting from Praça da Liberdade, goes to the intersection of Ruas Patrocinio and Peçanha.” (Belo Horizonte, 1929).
• 22
  Bartolomé Mitre Martinez (Buenos Aires, June 26, 1821 — Buenos Aires, January 19, 1906) was an Argentine general who participated in the Paraguayan War (1864-1870), in which Argentina was an ally of Brazil and Uruguay.
• 23
  The ZUP (French acronym for Zone to be Urbanized as a Priority) was an administrative urban planning procedure used in France between 1959 and 1967, in order to respond to the growing demand for housing [translator’s note from Badariotti’s article].
• 24
  For recent studies covering urban toponymy in different states of Brazil, see Isquerdo (2023).
• 25
  These examples of variation were taken from street signs.
• 26
  For the suburban zone, only the documents AI.01.06.00-391 and CC Dt 06 008 were consulted, as the copies of the other two did not allow the names of the public places in that zone to be properly read.
• 27
  It should be noted, however, that this plan did not record all the toponyms already existing in the city, because it did not completely cover certain regions that were already subdivided, such as the upper part of the current Bairro Anchieta, subdivided since May 5, 1928 (according to the CP [= Subdivision Sketch] 041-005-L) and only partially visible on the aforementioned plan. The plans that constitute subdivision sketches are available online in a digital version through the SIURBE System of the City Hall of Belo Horizonte.
• 28
  Given the observation of cases such as Rua A and Rua B and the absence of a category in Dick’s classification for these cases (1990a), the classification of alphatoponyms (toponyms based on letters of the alphabet) was proposed here to designate this type.
• 29
  Avenida Paraopeba in the suburban zone was not recorded as an independent street in CDC1895-97, because it extends from the urban area, just as Rua Itajubá was not recorded as an independent street in the urban area in P1928-29, because it extends from the suburban zone.
• 30
  In addition to these three categories (street, avenue and square), there is another category that occurs only one time in each plan (road): Estrada de Ferro da Capital de Minas in CDC1895-97 and Estrada para Sabará in P1928-29. Given the rarity and singularity of these cases, they were not included in the analysis.
• 31
  Axiotoponyms (names of people with titles or dignities) were computed within the category of anthropotoponyms, as they are considered to be a subcategory of these.
• 32
  Data from the urban zone were used from Cambraia e Seabra (2022b). The classification of Rua do Jequitinhonha was changed here from hydrotoponym to chorotoponym, as it is considered that the new classification is more compatible with the motivations surrounding this street.
• 33
  The prioritization of chorotoponyms that are cities in Minas Gerais must certainly have been a way of legitimizing the recent capital, whose choice was the result of much dispute. Furthermore, it reinforced the republican vision of federation (autonomous entities associated with a hierarchically ordered entity) applied at the state level (municipalities under the aegis of the State of the federation).
• 34
  When counting items in each toponym, neither the name of the type of public place (square, avenue and street) nor the preposition (articulated or not) that immediately follows the name of the type were considered. Thus, a toponym such as Rua dos Andes received classification 1 (Andes). Morphological words were computed, not graphic words, which is why Rua Felippe dos Santos received classification 4 (Felippe + de + os + Santos).
• 35
  It is possible that this same principle explains the general tendency to suppress prepositions (articulated or not) after the type of street: cf. Rua do Araxá (CDC1895-97) > Rua Araxá (P1928-29). The only two toponyms with extension 5 are those referring to States of Brazil: Rua Rio Grande do Norte and Rua Rio Grande do Sul (the same in CDC1895-97 and P1928-29): they were certainly not abbreviated in the final part, because it would generate homonymy.
• 36
  In this neighborhood, the name of the street was changed to Rua Icó, on a date that has not yet been identified.
• 37
  In this neighborhood, the name of the street was changed to Rua Recife, on a date not yet identified, due to it being aligned with the street already with that name.
• 38
  In this neighborhood, the name of the street was changed to Avenida Jequitinhonha, on a date not yet identified.
• 39
  Although the attribution of toponyms is governed by this principle, social life ends up resulting in the coexistence of parallel forms, either due to changes still being implemented (e.g., old residents using a name prior to a given change), or for referential convenience (residents preferring to refer to the name of a square by the name of some business present there, as was the case of Praça 13 de Maio, which, despite having its name changed to Praça Diogo de Vasconcelos in 1943, began to be informally called of Praça da Savassi due to the Savassi Bakery installed there since 1940).
• 40
  Floriano Vieira Peixoto (Maceió, April 30, 1839 – Barra Mansa, June 29, 1895).
• 41
  With the aforementioned revocation of the changes in toponymy between 1895 and 1919, by Municipal Law No. 182, of October 13, 1919, the avenue returned to its original name. Later, Praça Belo Horizonte, which was in front of the same headquarter, had its name changed to Praça Floriano Peixoto, by Municipal Decree No. 55, of December 20, 1929: again, the Principle of Biotopic Relationship acted.
• 42
  João Pinheiro da Silva (Serro, December 16, 1860 — Belo Horizonte, October 25, 1908).
• 43
  Conversely, Avenida Cristóvão Colombo, which had the singularity of maintaining its name even after the interruption of Praça da Liberdade in CDC1895-97, had the section after it renamed Avenida Bias Fortes by Municipal Decree No. 44, of September 7, 1929 (at a time after the one of P1928-29).
• 44
  Afonso Augusto Moreira Pena (Santa Bárbara, November 30, 1847 — Rio de Janeiro, June 14, 1909).
• 45
  There are, in P1928-29, 173 anthropotoponyms, but it was not possible to recover the date of death of the honored person of 10 of them, either because it was not even possible to identify the person (in cases such as Rua Yara), or because, despite having identified the person, the respective biographical data was not found (in cases such as Rua Hollanda Lima, which refers to the engineer Inocêncio de Hollanda Lima).
• 46
  The replacements were: Praça da Estação > Praça Rui Barbosa; Praça 14 de Fevereiro > Praça Rio Branco; Praça 7 de Setembro > Praça 12 de Outubro; Avenida da Liberdade > Avenida João Pinheiro; Avenida do Parahybuna > Avenida Bernardo Monteiro; Avenida do Parque > Av. Imperio; Avenida do Parahybuna > Avenida Bernardo Monteiro; Rua Itambe > Rua Ayuruoca; Rua da Liberdade > [unnamed street]; Rua do Jequitinhonha > Rua dos Aymorés (beginning); and Rua Nunes Vieira > Rua Antonio d’Albuquerque (end). The old Rua da Liberdade had been changed to Rua Levindo Lopes by Municipal Law No. 281, of October 3, 1924, but in P1928-29. it is not named.
• 47
  This same ordering in terms of maintenance, although with different percentages, is what was found taking into account the situation of the city’s urban toponymy in relation to 2022 (Cambraia; Seabra, 2022b).
• 48
  As mentioned in section 3, several studies relating to cities in Minas Gerais pointed to a behavior compatible with the Principle of Anthropotoponymic Vector.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  02 Sept 2024
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  30 Sept 2023
• Accepted
  14 Nov 2023