荷蘭東印度公司在臺灣的紀念性地名

The VOC Commemorative Toponyms in Taiwan

本文討論十七世紀荷蘭東印度公司在臺灣所命名、使用的紀念性地名。東印度公司在臺灣使用的紀念性地名可分為船隻名稱、人物名、地理名，以及事件屬性名稱等四類。本文藉由荷蘭東印度公司繪製的古地圖與文獻資料提及的紀念性地名，討論東印度公司使用於臺灣的紀念性地名意涵、命名原則，以及當時的使用狀況。文章認為紀念性地名若為事件屬性或船隻名稱，一般而言與在地關聯性較強；若為人物名、地理名，則與在地關係薄弱，甚至缺乏在地連結。當中，以地理名與在地關係最弱，主要用於彰顯東印度公司的殖民地成就。船隻名稱、事件屬性的紀念性地名則與悲劇事件有關。當時臺灣民間並不普遍使用東印度公司紀念性地名，甚至在公司底層雇員的回憶錄中出現的比例也不高。

This article discusses how the commemorative toponyms were named and used by the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) in seventeenth-century Taiwan. The VOC commemorative toponyms were designated after ships, prominent figures, geographical names in the Netherlands and the nature of the commemorated events themselves while the cartographical works and documentary materials left by the VOC were used to study the meanings of the VOC commemorative toponyms, their naming principles and usages by the VOC personnel in seventeenth-century Taiwan. It concludes that the VOC commemorative toponyms after prominent figures and geographical names in the Netherlands, which were utilized to glorify the colonial achievement, had only very weak or almost no linkage with the named geographical objects. In contrast, the VOC place names after ships and incidents, mostly for memorizing tragedies, were associated with the baptized places. The VOC commemorative toponyms were not popular in the contemporary Taiwan, and the low-ranking personnel did not refer to the said commemorative toponyms either in their memoirs.