Toponymy of the Kerguelen Islands information

The Kerguelen Islands, an archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean, were discovered uninhabited on February 12, 1772 by Breton navigator Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec, and have remained without a permanent population ever since. The only residents were during an attempt to set up a farm, a few occasional occupations for whaling activities, and since the 1950s, a French scientific presence. Its toponymy was thus given ex nihilo, by the various explorers, whalers and sealers who frequented its waters and anchorages, and then in the 20th century, once French possession of the archipelago had been reaffirmed, by a few French institutions.

According to historian Gracie Delépine, the place names of the Kerguelen Islands are "witnesses both to the gradual discovery made by Europeans, and to the intellectual civilization of those same Europeans. Over a thousand toponyms have been left on the archipelago by explorers, hunters, fishermen, scientists and navies from all over the world, from the time of its discovery in 1772 to the present day. In addition, they give a geographical portrait of the islands, as well as a zoological and botanical description: they make up their natural history.’’^[1]