House names in Senglea : communicating identities in a fortified town in Malta

Abstract

Malta is one of the few countries in the world where most dwellings are assigned names by their owners or occupants. Building on previous research on house naming practices in the Maltese Islands, this paper zooms in on just one locality, one of the smallest: the fortified town of Senglea. The methodology this time involved (a) desk research identifying house names from a recent electoral register; and (b) fieldwork on site, whereby the specifics and extent of house names were confirmed or revised, and where home occupants were invited to discuss and disclose the reason(s) for naming their house, and for their particular choice of name. The results suggest that: (a) there are many more house names than are reported in Malta’s Electoral Register; and (b) categorising house names according to what come across as self-evident labels can prove naive and incorrect.