This study proposes a concept “negative brand value of place names”; when events such as disease, disaster, and catastrophe occur in a specific place, the total brand value of place names might decrease. The negative brand value of place names has socially entrenched recognition of place names and exposed them to the risk of reproducing negative images. From this point of view, this study intends to apply the concept of stigma, meaning socially dishonorable attribute. "Toponymic stigma" can be defined that a social risk as the negative brand value of place names is solidified into the place names through a series of processes.
The concept of toponymic stigma can be materialized by constructing evaluation method to measure and assess it. In this study, the assessment includes four items: awareness, images, influence of recognition, loyalty. A case study has been conducted on Wuhan in China, which has long been considered a source region of COVID-19.
A toponym Wuhan showed relatively high awareness among other Chinese cities, and negative answers prevailed in terms of Wuhan's image, influence of cognition, and loyalty. In addition, these four items showed significant differences in answers depending on how much the survey participants thought they were affected by COVID-19 and whether they had visited China. Further studies can be the proposed to continuously verify the validity of the assessment items by applying them to various cases; discuss a concrete methodology to identify changes in people's recognition of place names; relationship between place and place names.
Mots clés : place names|toponym|negative brand value of place names|toponymic stigma|Wuhan
A104893KC