The study of the origin of place names or toponyms is a challenging research field which provides more insight in the history of a specific location. This field uses historical maps in order to trace the earliest designation of a location or to link a place name to certain landscape features.
In the context of the VLIZ-magazine 'De Grote Rede' an etymological team was established. This multidisciplinary team includes experts in the field of etymology, hydrography, archeology, history and ecology and has had meetings on a regular basis since 2006 to explain the origin of sea-related words (both places and non-places). The provisional result of their work has been compiled in the following map layer toponyms where the etymological explanation of the relevant location can be retrieved (in Dutch). The map layer can be combined and compared with the historical maps. The different toponyms are also listed in the table below together with a link to the corresponding articles (in Dutch).
