Jump to content

Alan Rayburn

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alan Rayburn (15 November 1932 – 26 September 2019) was a Canadian writer and geographer who specialized in the study of toponymy.

Biography

[edit]

Rayburn was born on 15 November 1932.[1] After earning a degree in geography, he joined the Geographical Branch of the Federal Department of Mines and Technical Survey in 1957, where he worked on the creation of a Canadian atlas.[2] He was appointed as the first official toponymic researcher in Canada in 1967, and was among the charter members of the Ontario Geographic Names Board and the Toponymic Division of the Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographic Names.[2]

Recognized as an authority on North American toponymy, Rayburn wrote over 100 articles and eight books across his career. He wrote extensively for Canadian Geographic, and published several scholarly works in Names: A Journal of Onomastics.[2]

Rayburn died on 26 September 2019 in Ontario, at the age of 86. He is buried at St. Patrick's Cemetery in Ontario.[2]

Publications

[edit]
  • Rayburn, Alan (1967). Geographical Names of Renfrew County. Geographical Branch. Ottawa: Department of Energy Mines and Resources. OCLC 46823.[3][a]
  • — (1973). Geographical Names of Prince Edward Island. Ottawa: Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names. ISBN 978-0-6600-1740-2.
  • — (1975). Geographical Names of New Brunswick. Ottawa: Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names. OCLC 2170169.[4]
  • — (1993). Lost Names and Places of Eastern Ontario. Ontario Genealogical Society. ISBN 978-1-5511-6926-2.
  • — (1994). Naming Canada. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-6990-0.[5][6][7][8]
  • — (1997). Dictionary of Canadian Place Names. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1954-1086-0.[9]
  • — (1997). Place Names of Ontario. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-7207-8.[10][11][12]
  • — (2010). Place Names of Canada. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1954-3153-7.[b]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ A second edition of Geographical Names of Renfrew County was published in 1989 by Alan Rayburn Associates.[3]
  2. ^ Place Names of Canada (2010) is the second edition of Dictionary of Canadian Place Names (1997). The second edition includes a revised preface and new introduction.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Alan Rayburn Obituary". Arbor Memorial. 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d Nick, I. M. (December 2019). "In Memoriam: Alan Rayburn (1932–2019)". Names: A Journal of Onomastics. 67 (4). American Name Society: 241–244. doi:10.1080/00277738.2019.1677054. ISSN 0027-7738.
  3. ^ a b Bradley, Diane (1990). "Alan Rayburn. Geographical Names of Renfrew County, Ontario". Onomastica Canadiana. 72 (1). Canadian Society for the Study of Names: 42–44. ISSN 0078-4656.
  4. ^ "Announcing a new publication: Geographical Names of New Brunswick". Times-Transcript. 4 October 1975. p. 13. Retrieved 28 February 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Barman, Jean (2003). "Naming Canada". Journal of the West. 42 (4). ABC-CLIO: 104. ISSN 0022-5169.
  6. ^ Barnum, H. Gardiner (1995). "Review – Naming Canada: Stories about Place Names from Canadian Geographic by Alan Rayburn". The Canadian Geographer. 39 (4). Canadian Association of Geographers: 378–379. ISSN 1541-0064. Retrieved 28 February 2026 – via ProQuest.
  7. ^ Everitt, John (1 October 1995). "Alan Rayburn, "Naming Canada: Stories about Place Names from Canadian Geographic" (Book Review)". Journal of Historical Geography. 21 (4). Elsevier: 460. ISSN 1095-8614. Retrieved 28 February 2026 – via ProQuest.
  8. ^ Tobin, Anne-Marie (29 June 2001). "Book gives scoop on place names". The Sault Star. p. B6. Retrieved 28 February 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Dawber, Michael (4 April 1998). "Dictionary tracks our great place names". The Hamilton Spectator. Retrieved 28 February 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Forkey, Neil S. (December 1998). "Looking for Old Ontario: Two Centuries of Landscape Change by Thomas F. McIlwraith, and: Place Names of Ontario by Alan Rayburn (review)". The Canadian Historical Review. 79 (4). University of Toronto Press: 785–787. ISSN 1710-1093. Retrieved 28 February 2026 – via Project MUSE.
  11. ^ Dawber, Michael (3 August 1997). "What's in a place name?: Just ask Alan Rayburn – he wrote the book on Ontario". Ottawa Citizen. p. 12. Retrieved 28 February 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Mironowicz, Margaret (23 July 1997). "Geographic sleuth finds tale behind the name". The Sun Times. p. B7. Retrieved 28 February 2026 – via Newspapers.com.

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alan_Rayburn&oldid=1344894937"