Hydronymy

As references to foreign hydronymies have shown, this semantic structure and development is not confined to Scotland or to the British Isles.

In hydronymy there are many pairs of river names such as Eau Blanche/Eau Noire in France, Blanc Ruxel/Noir Ruisseau in the Vosges, France, Beli Iskdr/Cerni Iskdr in Bulgaria, Crisul Alb/Crisul Negru in Romania.

Hydronymy marks the most conservative feature of toponomastics. By hydronymy earlier strata of a population might be identified and the movements of prehistoric peoples can be observed assessing the spread of the hydronymy associated with them.