Encyclopedia > List of generic forms in British place names

  Article Content

List of generic forms in British place names

The study of place names is called toponymy; for a more detailed examination of this subject relative to British place names please refer to British toponymy.

This list gives a number of common generic forms found in British place names. It is not uncommon to find a number of these in combinative compounds. An interesting example of place naming is Torpenhow Hill, in Cumbria; the name seems to have grown by waves of new inhabitants using the name given by the previous occupants, and adding to it: the three syllables, tor, pen, how, each mean "hill" in a different language. Moreover, there are a number of ambiguities, corruptions in spelling over the year, changes in meaning, etc. to further complicate the issue.

In places where the Danelaw prevailed and there is uncertainty over the origin of a place name, it is common sense to prefer the Viking meaning to the Anglo-Saxon, often, however, the two are coterminous. Taking Askrigg[?] in Yorkshire, for example, "a place where ash trees grew", while the spelling of asc is indubitably Nordic, had the place been further south it could easily have represented a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon ash.

Unlike e.g. Anglo-Saxon place names, Cornish place names are resolved in reverse order, e.g. Tregonebris is Tre + Conebris i.e. "the settlement of Cunebris"

The terms Old English language and Anglo-Saxon language are fundamentally equivalent in meaning and represent the hybrid Germanic non-Celtic, non-Nordic, language between the Roman abandonment of Britain, and up to about 100 years after the Norman invasion in 1066.

See also: List of British place names and their meanings

Key to languages: L - Latin/Roman OE - Old English V - Viking/Norse K - Cornish W - Welsh SG - Scots Gaelic P - Pictish

British Place Names
Term Origin Meaning Example Position Comments
aber W,P,K mouth of (a river), confluence, a meeting of waters Aberystwyth, Aberdyfi, Aberdeen prefix  
ac, acc OE acorn alt. association with oak Accrington, Acomb[?]    
afon W,SG,K river Aberafon[?]   afon is pronounced "AA von". A number of UK rivers are named "Avon"
ay (also ey) V island Ramsay, Lundy, Orkney Islands suffix (usually)  
axe, exe OE from isca, meaning water Exeter, River Axe, River Exe[?], River Usk, Axminster,Axmouth[?], etc    
beck V stream Holbeck[?], Beckinsale[?], Costa Beck[?], Cod Beck[?]    
Bex OE box[?], the tree Bexley, Kent[?] Bexhill-on-Sea (the OE name of Bexhill-on-Sea was Bexelei, a glade where box grew.    
bourne OE brook, stream Bournemouth, Sittingbourne[?]    
bre OE hill Bredon[?] prefix  
by V settlement, village Grimsby suffix  
carden P thicket Kincardine[?], Cardenden[?] suffix  
caster, cester, caer L camp, fortification Lancaster, Doncaster, Gloucester, Caister, Caerdydd, Caerleon suffix Also can be corrupted e.g. Exeter, Uttoxeter
Chipping, Cheap- OE Market Chipping Norton[?], Chipping Campden[?], Chippenham   Also as part of a street name eg Cheapside
cwm w valley Cwmbran prefix  
King OE Cyning King, tribal leader King's Norton[?], Kingston, Kingston Bagpuize[?]    
deanas OE valley Croydon, Dean Village suffix The geography is often the only indicator as to the original root word (cf. don, a hill)
don OE hill Bredon[?] suffix  
fax OE, V fair, pale Halifax    
Fin P Hill (?) Findochty[?] prefix Possibly related to Pen
glen SG Valley Rutherglen    
ham OE settlement, town Oldham suffix Often confused by hamm, an enclosure
hurst OE wooded hill Dewhurst[?]    
ing OE: ingas descendants or followers of Reading i.e. the subjects of Reada[?] suffix sometimes survives in its plural form e.g. Hastings
Inver SG mouth of (a river), confluence, a meeting of waters Inverness prefix  
Kin SG Head Kincardine[?] prefix  
Lan, Lhan, Llan K, P, W church, church-site Llanteglos, Cornwall[?], Lhanbryde, Moray[?] Llanfair PG prefix  
Law OE from hlaw, a rounded hill Charlaw[?] Warden Law[?] (usually) standalone often a hill with a barrow[?] or hillocks on its summit
lea, ley OE derived from leah, a woodland clearing Wembley (usually) suffix  
Mon P ? Moniave[?] prefix  
nan, nans K valley Nancledra, Cornwall[?] prefix  
nant W stream Nantgarw prefix  
pen K, OE hill Penzance, Cornwall prefix  
pit P farm Pitlochry, Perthshire[?] prefix  
pol K pool or lake Polperro, Cornwall[?] prefix  
pont L, K, W bridge Pontypridd prefix Can also be found in its unmutated form "bont", e.g Pen-Y-Bont (Bridgend); originally from Latin pons
shaw V a wood; is a corruption of howe (cf.) Penshaw[?] Standalone or suffix  
Stoke OE stoc Dependent farmstead, settlement Stoke-on-Trent, Stoke Damerell[?] (Usually) standalone  
Strath P Valley Strathmore, Angus[?] prefix  
thorp, thorpe V village, settlement Cleethorpes, Thorpeness[?]    
thwaite V thveit a forest clearing with a dwelling Huthwaite[?] suffix  
tre K settlement Trevose Head[?] prefix  
tun, ton OE: tun enclosure, farmstead, manor, estate Tunstead[?], Tonbridge[?] i.e. the bridge of the estate; Charlton[?] (AS: ceorla-tun, "farmstead of the churls")    

External links and references



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
BBC News 24

... for the cost of running BBC News 24 channel, with so few viewers. Their response was to promote the channel through their ordinary channels BBC1 and BBC2, using ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 40.8 ms