The exclamation "Switzerland in Saxony!" by the St. Gallen copper engraver Adrian Zingg (1734-1816) and the Winterthur painter Anton Graff (1736-1813) during their exploration of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, which reminded them of Switzerland in 1780, allegedly led to the renaming "Saxon Switzerland." However, the term "Switzerland" was not the only designation that gained global popularity in the late 18th century. On March 7, 1770, the crew of the "HMS Endeavour" on James Cook's first South Sea expedition sighted the mountains of New Zealand's South Island. Captain Cook had the mountains recorded on the maps as "Southern Alps."

Two phenomena of modern global toponymy are examined through the following research questions: How, when, and in what form was it possible for the country name "Switzerland" to evolve into a widespread metaphor in literature and a common toponymic epithet in cartography and tourism? How did the mountain name "Alps" transform from a proper name into an epithet in geography, cartography, and botany? This work thematically fills a gap in global environmental research.