The naming of Beleriand

[Ithrynluin]

The History of Middle Earth XI: The War of the Jewles; Commentary to the Grey Annals
The name Beleriand is drawn from the tongue of the Sindar, the Grey-elves that long dwelt in that country; and it signifies the land of Balar. For this name the Sindar gave to Osse, who came much to those coasts, and there befriended them. In ancient days, ere the War of Utumno, it was but the northern shoreland of the long west-coast of Middle-earth, lying south of Eryd Engrin (the Iron Mountains) and between the Great Sea and Eryd Luin (the Blue Mountains).

The History of Middle Earth XI: The War of the Jewles; Commentary to the Grey Annals
In the List of Names of the 1930s (V.404) 'Beleriand' was said as in GA 2 to have been originally the 'land about southern Sirion'; but is there said to have been 'named by the Elves of the Havens from Cape Balar, and Bay of Balar into which Sirion flowed'. In the Etymologies (V.350, stem BAL) Beleriand was likewise derived from (the isle of) Balar, and Balar in turn 'probably from *balare, and so called because here Osse visited the waiting Teleri.' At that time Osse was a Bala (Vala).

Do you think Beleriand is a fitting name for this country? It was named after Ossë, who came to the coasts.

There is no mention of Ossë journeying inland, rather loving the shallow waters of the seas:

The Silmarillion: The Valaquenta
Ossë is a vassal of Ulmo, and he is master of the seas that wash the shores of Middle-earth. He does not go in the deeps, but loves the coasts and the isles, and rejoices in the winds of Manwë; for in storm he delights, and laughs amid the roaring of the waves.

Wouldn't it be more proper then if only the coasts were named Beleriand, and 'Beleriand proper' be given a more fitting name?

 

[Beleg]

Wouldn't it be more proper then if only the coasts were named Beleriand, and 'Beleriand proper' be given a more fitting name?

What more fitting name do you envision?
I guess it's a matter of opinion even though I also find it strange that inland Beleriand was also named after someone totally unrelated to them.

 

[Ithrynluin]

I don't 'envision' any particular name, though we could try and come up with one.

I am wondering whether this is how Tolkien wanted it to be named in the end.

 

[jallan]

Well, I would guess that Elves would be continually giving names to the regions they encountered as they slowly moved westward during the Great Journey.

Calling the area around which Ossë appeared Beleriandë was a reasonable ad hoc decision. The Teleri who moved into that region to dwell there would naturally use the name.

It would come to mean simply the name of the land in which they currently dwelt, proably with little thought anymore as to its meaning and not much thought as to its actual borders.

As these Elves began to settle more widely they would keep the name.

That’s normal enough in real life.

In 1535 Jacques Cartier misunderstood the Huron-Iroquois word kanata ‘village‚ to mean the name of the of the village of Stadacona (where Quebec City now is). He expanded the word, which he heard as Canada to mean all the territory under the control of chief Donnacona.

Then the name appeared on maps to mean all land north from the river to who knows were. The river was then named the River of Canada before being renamed the St. Lawrence which suggested that all land draining into it was perhaps to be called Canada.

And so the expansion continued.

India presumably originally only referred to the lands around the Indus river (which is not even within the bounds of modern India).