St. Barth vs St. Barts?

stbartshopper

stbartshopper

Senior Insider
Forum members have asked whether our screen name is Shopper or Hopper. We intended Shopper.
The question brings another one up for us for some enlightenment.
It seems to us the correct shortening of the island name should be St. Barth but we hear most people say St. Barts- hence the question Shopper vs. Hopper. The free dictionary.com and yourdictionary.com call it St. Barts.
How did it become St. Barts instead of St. Barth in most or many peoples' vernacular? Barth sounds- we don't know- maybe more elegant or more French shall we say. Barts reminds us of maybe the Simpsons (Bart Starr) but we realize the term goes way back before this television program existed.
Bye the way the web defines Barthelemy as follows- 'Barthélemy, a young man from France, was part of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle's final expedition in 1687. Barthélemy's rather dubious claim to a place in written history occurred after the murder of La Salle on the Trinity River in present day Texas. ...
There probably is no explanation but it might get some funny speculations. :watermelon:
 
No answer to that question but the locals use ST BARTH... seems like the US press uses St Barts... but there is no S in St Barthelemy so who knows where the S came from?

I don't think the Barthelemy you are referring to has any relation to the island.. it was supposedly named by Christopher Columbus after his brother Bartholomew Columbus ---
 
To the extent that Saint-Barth is the French version, a few notes:
It is highly discouraged to abbreviate saint in French. If one does there is not a point following the t or e. If one is referring to the saint him or herself then saint is not capitalized. In reference to places etc named after saints there is a hyphen between saint and the name.
 
NHDiane said:
SBH works for me.....:cool:
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That's an interesting topic. SBH is certainly the AITA code for Gustave III and seems to be used as shorthand in some contexts for Saint-Barth, but I wonder if it has origins beyond an airport code. Does anyone refer to Nice as NCE or to Marseille as MRS or Paris as CDG or ORY?
 
Barts reminds us of maybe the Simpsons (Bart Starr) but we realize the term goes way back before this television program existed:
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As a die-hard Packers fan, I hope you're not confusing our hall-of-fame QB with Bart Simpson! :wink2:
 
cassidain said:
That's an interesting topic. SBH is certainly the AITA code for Gustave III and seems to be used as shorthand in some contexts for Saint-Barth, but I wonder if it has origins beyond an airport code. Does anyone refer to Nice as NCE or to Marseille as MRS or Paris as CDG or ORY?
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I do. Just like SXM, JFK, LAX, MIA...

BTW, it is "IATA"... :)
 
cassidain said:
That's an interesting topic. SBH is certainly the AITA code for Gustave III and seems to be used as shorthand in some contexts for Saint-Barth, but I wonder if it has origins beyond an airport code. Does anyone refer to Nice as NCE or to Marseille as MRS or Paris as CDG or ORY?
Click to expand...

Yes, but I'd use PAR for Paris as it covers all the airports :) I know way too many airport codes..
 
NYC, LON, PAR all have several airports.... I know way too many airport codes also. As a matter of fact, my life is always in the look of YYZ-SXM, YUL-FLL, LGW-MAD, or OSL-WAW..., with the "-" when I'm at work. Tuesday it'll be NCE-CPH. I wish it was SXM-SBH though....:cool:
 
elgreaux said:
No answer to that question but the locals use ST BARTH... seems like the US press uses St Barts... but there is no S in St Barthelemy so who knows where the S came from?

I don't think the Barthelemy you are referring to has any relation to the island.. it was supposedly named by Christopher Columbus after his brother Bartholomew Columbus ---
Click to expand...

Ellen, I wonder if for those who use St. Barts it shouldn't be St. Bart's. This usage seems to be for anglophones who are accustomed to referring St. Michael Church as St. Michael's or St. Dominic Academy as St. Dominic's, for example. Food for thought.
 
Place names of Caribbean islands are quite inconsistent and have evolved over time, much like language. I'm looking at a map of the Virgins by Thomas Jefferys (not Jeffries), cartographer to the King. I believe it was made sometime in the 1800s since some of the Virgins are Danish but there are no Swedish islands. Apparently names and possessives confuse him. Anyway, I see Sr Francis Drake's Bay, St Johns (not St John), Normands I. (not Norman Island), Jost van Dykes (not Dyke), Peter's I. (not Peter Island), Coopers I. (not Cooper Island), St. Martins, St. Bartholomew, and St. Christophers (not St. Kitts). Imprecision and laziness which gets repeated enough becomes a place name. Bart is short for Bartholomew and people have a way of adding a possessive so you get Bart's but are too lazy to add the apostrophe which yields Barts. That's my story anyway.
 
"Imprecision and laziness which gets repeated enough becomes a place name. Bart is short for Bartholomew and people have a way of adding a possessive so you get Bart's but are too lazy to add the apostrophe which yields Barts. That's my story anyway."

D'accord.
 
cassidain said:
"Imprecision and laziness which gets repeated enough becomes a place name. Bart is short for Bartholomew and people have a way of adding a possessive so you get Bart's but are too lazy to add the apostrophe which yields Barts. That's my story anyway."

D'accord.
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so should we start calling you Hank's
 
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