Naming rivers

"Why it's called River Thames instead of Thames River? Anyone would like to explain? Actually someone asked me and I got speechless lol "

On another forum, and in answer to the above question, I wrote this:

<<I'm beginning to think it goes like this:

The River Thames = the river with the name Thames.

The Thames River = the river running through/lying in the region of/having its source in the area known as Thames.

But, I'll have to check it out.

The River Nile = the river called Nile.

The Nile River = the river lying in the Nile Valley.

........

Any thoughts on that?>>

Most rivers in Britain tend to be spoken about using the "river + noun" form, but when we Brits speak about rivers abroad, we often choose the reverse form.

Examples from the British National Corpus (BNC):

THE YANGTZE RIVER

THE MARCHIONESS RIVER

THE TAPPAJOSS RIVER

THE DARO RIVER

THE LIMPOPO RIVER

THE BIKIN RIVER

THE CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER

THE OXUS RIVER

THE YANGTSE RIVER

THE ZANSKAR RIVER

THE YONGBYON RIVER

THE MANU RIVER

THE LYNHER RIVER

THE VARDAR RIVER

THE TUTOH RIVER

THE TRAGINO RIVER

THE THAUNGYIN RIVER




Any thoughts?

I'm not sure why the word "river" sometimes appears before the name and sometimes after. I've heard some people also call it Thames River.

Its actual full name is Royal River Thames.

According to what I've just found, most rivers in Britain and Ireland are named with river before the name - e.g. River Thames, River Severn, River Clyde. Saying Thames River or Severn River is not recommended.

In Germany, though, they tend not to include the word "river" at all in their names. So they don't say "x river" or "river x". They just say "x."

Brits never call it the Thames river! It's always the River Thames. At Oxford, situated on the same river, the Thames is called the Isis. The people most likely to call it the Thames River would be American trourists, in the same way that they call the river (or rather estuary) on which Edinburgh stands the Forth river instead of just the Forth or, more correctly the Firth of Forth.

It's called the Royal River Thames because the Royal County of Berkshire stands on its banks west of London and Windsor, with its castle, also in Berkshire, stands right on its banks.

btw it's also called Old Father Thames, probably because the UK capital London sits astride the river. The source of the river Thames is a tourist attraction...a wee spring of clear water in a meadow near Cirencester in the Cotswolds.

A firth is the Scottish name for a narrow inlet of the sea, which is just what the Firth of Forth is....in other words, the estuary of a river. Over Glasgow way it's the Firth of Clyde as the estuary of the river on which Glasgow stands.

What about the Bridge on the RIVER KWAI, another exception to the rule ?

Cheers. Claude.

Scottish firth = Norwegian fjord = German Förde

Could putting "river" in front of the river name be something you do for poetic reasons?

In Connecticut, it seems to be called the "Thames River".

<<Could putting "river" in front of the river name be something you do for poetic reasons? >>

Hi Fredrik! Fancy meeting you here!

Yes, absolutely. Putting "River" first is often interpreted as either poetic or old-fashioned. Some rivers that were named in antiquity, like the Thames, retain that order, but most others do not. Also, famous rivers like the Thames, the Nile, the Mississippi, the Danube, etc. often do not need to have the word "River" included at all -- we all know what they are.

The name "Lake" however, often does imply a very large-sized puddle of water if it is put first -- Lake Baikal, Lake Superior, Lake Victoria, Lake Okeechobee, etc. are going to be much larger and more important than say, little Beaver Lake in Arkansas, or Keuka Lake in NY. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but it does sometimes act as a more reliable indicator than "River".