Toponomy Shenanigans

A treatise on toponymy for a conculture could be interesting, and could offer some interesting possibilities for coming up with ideas to develop regarding the history of that conculture. Some small hints that can lead to some interesting results:

• post-glacial rebound can readjust coastlines quite drastically over time; nautical designations (bays, sounds, beaches) easily remain even after the land's been dry for centuries. (I know this because I grew up in such a region; I don't even react if a place whose name means 'thislake' or 'thatbay' is completely devoid of water and more than 20 miles from the closest coast. If a hill goes by that name I'd be a bit concerned, though.)
• at places where the coastline is receding, hills will remain as islands longer than surrounding land, thus names referring to hills may appear in an archipelago.

Of course, population movements often also leave behind all kinds of incomprehensible roots that can survive for centuries. (C.f. the old European hydronymy.)

Further, what morphemes do you use? Would 'left' and 'right' as common parts of names make sense? Does ownership have a significant influence? Inheritance customs, maybe? Are people named for places or places named for people? Is X-on-Waterway or X-by-Road or somesuch common? (They seem to be common in France, Britain and the Germanic Continent, but less so in Scandinavia.) Do you have something like 'Upper' and 'Lower' and what do they signify? Need not be genuinely vertical distinctions!

Is the presence of some type of religious building significant in the categorization of hamlets, villages, towns and cities?