Singapore's Pre-colonial Place Names: A Philological Reconstruction Developed through the Analysis of Historical Maps

Past research on pre-colonial toponyms in Singapore has focused on providing
information about the pre-colonial maps that contained them, while overlooking the possible explanations behind their diachronic development. A comparative analysis of the historical maps will thus shed light on the development, similarities, and differences among names given, in different times, to the same location. The paper attempts to reconstruct pre-colonial toponyms through an analysis of maps collected from the National Archives of Singapore and the National Library Board. On top of that, the article explains the survival and disappearance of these ancient toponyms found in these pre-colonial maps. Results show a total of 12 precolonial toponyms, some of them with multilingual variations, given, over time, by different naming subjects. Despite the influence of official place naming policies and multilingual toponymic variations, the reasons for the survival of a pre-colonial toponym are mainly linked to its meaning and the continuous usage by inhabitants. The article provides a survey of placenaming trends during the pre-colonial period of Singapore and serves as a guide for future research on the origins of the toponyms documented in maps drawn by pre-colonial cartographers.