The effect of geographical phenomena in naming the villages of West Azerbaijan province

Toponyms are a great number of lexicon, which have emerged during centuries to name a place. In Iran, our country, the naming process of most villages and cities happens based on natural geographical phenomena like mountains, hills, plains, passes, valleys, rivers, springs, floods, storms and so on. The name of the cities like Damavand, Uromia, Miandoab, etc. and villages like Seilabad, Garehtapeh, Dashbilag, etc. are explicit samples of this kind of naming in Iran. The main goal of the present study is to investigate geotoponyms in the naming of the villages in West Azerbaijan province. Classifying the local authentic names and mentioning the primary sources like Irannica and Britannica, we exert and analyze our optimized names. The results show a prominent degree of relation between naming of villages and natural geographical phenomena in West Azerbaijan region. Among these, natural geographical phenomena related to heights, mountains, valleys, and plains have the uppermost influence on naming the villages of the region.