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Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 17:04:02 -0800
From: Jennifer Stone Muilenburg <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: bay vs. sound
Sender: Jennifer Stone Muilenburg <[log in to unmask]>



We just had a patron who wanted to know why Puget Sound is Puget Sound, and
not Puget Bay -- comparing especially with Chesapeake Bay and San Francisco
Bay, which seem to have a similar geographic outlay to Puget Sound (long,
skinny bodies of water connected to the ocean).
Varying definitions say (Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, ©
1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.):

sound \Sound\, n. [AS. sund a narrow sea or strait; akin to Icel., Sw., Dan.
& G. sund, probably so named because it could be swum across. See Swim.]
(Geog.) A narrow passage of water, or a strait between the mainland and an
island; also, a strait connecting two seas, or connecting a sea or lake with
the ocean; as, the Sound between the Baltic and the german Ocean; Long
Island Sound.

bay \Bay\, n. [F. baie, fr. LL. baia. Of uncertain origin: cf. Ir. & Gael.
badh or bagh bay harbor, creek; Bisc. baia, baiya, harbor, and F. bayer to
gape, open the mouth.] 1. (Geol.) An inlet of the sea, usually smaller than
a gulf, but of the same general character.

Note: The name is not used with much precision, and is often applied to
large tracts of water, around which the land forms a curve; as, Hudson's
Bay. The name is not restricted to tracts of water with a narrow entrance,
but is used for any recess or inlet between capes or headlands; as, the Bay
of Biscay.

We've hopped around a US map, looking at other bays and sounds, and we can't
see a definitive difference (although we haven't compared depths). Other
than saying "the naming of geographic features is a subjective art," do any
of you know of a source with a better explanation?

Jenny Stone Muilenburg
Geographic Information Systems Librarian
Map Collection, University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900   Seattle, WA 98195-2900
phone: 206.543.2725
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