If you know the meaning of a place name that is not here, you are encouraged to submit it. Names were given to springs, streams, rivers and lakes as well as marshes, bays and seas. The answer is No. Oakham and Hexham are further examples. Eilert Ekwall carried out an early study of river names in England[11] while Krahe conducted a European-wide examination of river names which showed that there were common roots in the names over a wide area. THE following Glossary contains the principal components of the place-names in the British Isles, and with its aid the derivation of many names may be ascertained, and something may be learned of the physical condition of various localities in early times. Topographical names were held in low esteem by early place name scholars but their importance was raised in a book by Margaret Gelling, first published in 1978. That notwithstanding, it is probable that the origins of the names of both settlements and natural features is the same, namely to distinguish one from another; and thus that both should be considered place names. from each other, then these features can be thought of as places, in that they represent distinct geographic locations. Examples include Oakley, Ashley, Thornley and Willey. The word eg meant an island, a promontory of land or in this case an 'island' of dry land surrounded by marsh. However, the broad, extended valley of a major river, such as the Trent, is not easily understood as a single location. That the latter are 'places' is obvious. Some historians have argued that the Viking invasions involved very large numbers of people because there are so many Viking place names. Stow The word “stow” or “stowe”found in several place names including “Stow-on-the-Wold” and Walthamstow, simply means “place of assembly”. Land characteristics were important to both hunters and farmers, and there are many terms relating to different types of hills and valleys. The vast majority of placenames in Ireland are anglicizations (adaptations to English phonology) of Irish language names. There is a high level of personal names within the place names, presumably the names of local landowners at the time of naming. BELANGER English From the given name BERENGAR. Another factor is that few large Viking settlements were on entirely new sites: many Viking settlements continued on the traditional Anglo-Saxon sites. Invasion from the Germanic Tribes has made a lasting impression on the landscape of England. Many a ham and tun was also named for a person, such as Birmingham, the ham of Beorma’s people (Beormingas). Although the origin of many place names is now forgotten, it is often possible to establish likely meanings through consideration of early forms of the name. "Der" means deer, so Derby is a settlement with or near many herds of Deer. There are identifiable processes which occur over time to place names, and which alter the place names in such a way that their original meanings are lost. Chester - 'Deva', Winchester - 'Venta Belgarum' etc.). In The Danelaw, the prefix is often the name of theperson who held that settlement. Water was of major importance to the early settlers of an area, both for subsistence and for religious reasons. Many other types of place name can be defined, for example those relating to tribal or personal names. Names are given to water features, hills and valleys, islands and marshes, as well as woods and districts. The Roman settlements in England still exist, yet they have grown considerably since the fall of Rome and the Roman towns have morphed into cities with global recognition. A good example of this is England's second city- Birmingham. Many places throughout Wales have alternative names in English unrelated to the name in Welsh, for example, Newport (where the Welsh name Casnewydd means "New Castle") and Swansea (derived from the Norse meaning "Svein's island") for the Welsh Abertawe (Mouth of the River Tawe. Other examples include Manchester and Cirencester. Replacement of the parent language is one of the most dramatic processes of change. Massachusetts has the most, with at least 104 English names for cities, towns and counties, starting with Amesbury and ending with Yarmouth. For example, Doncaster would probably have originated as a Roman fort on a hill, from the Roman 'Caster' and Celtic 'Don'. Etymology 2 []. Other cities and towns with a similar heritage are Bradford, Thetford and Sleaford. save. Toponymy divides place-names into two broad categories: habitation names and feature names. There are also aboriginal place names. The is no black and white facts when it comes to history. The processes by which place names change include abbreviation, conflation, convergence, development in the parent language (but stasis in the place name[vague]) and replacement of the parent language. Oakham and Hexham are further examples. “Another volume for every local historian's bookshelf” - Local HistorianThis revised edition of the Dictionary of British Place-Names includes over 17,000 engaging and informative entries, tracing the development of the featured place-names from earliest times to the present day. Amsterdam ('River Amstel dam'), Liechtenstein ('Light-stone'), Copenhagen ('Merchants' harbour), Paris ('Home of the Parisii'), Shanghai (approximately 'Seaport'), Tashkent ('Stone city'). HAM. This article is about the origins of place names themselves. These basic elements can also be found in place names in other countries; e.g. and directly from Medieval Latin placea "place, spot," from Latin platea "courtyard, open space; broad way, avenue," from Greek plateia (hodos) "broad (way)," fem. See also: Norman Place Names in England Norman Place Names Rhode Island has the fewest — 15 of them, from Bradford to Wickford. For every sensible sounding location such as a Southampton or Northampton, there is a Wetwang or a Caistor that can be located on the same map. When you find (-ham) in a place name, it tells us that the settlement was once a village. They may also have more linguistically diverse place names; for instance in England place names may have Pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, or Norman-French origins. In this time period, the Anglo Saxon inhabitants were joined by Scandinavian settlers and they lived under the rule of their Norse neighbours. Life would have continued without too much drastic change, but new words would enter the embryonic English language and they would appear in the names of new settlements. Over two millennium of immigration from continental Europe has seen a marked impact on the geography of the English countryside, signposts point to the mix-mash of different settlers from afar. A famous bearer is retired English soccer player David Beckham (1975-). In lowland Scotland, names are of more diverse origin. [21]. There is a high level of personal names within the place names, presumably the names of local landowners at the time of naming. The name of a place provides hints not only about who used to live there, but about how they made their living, who their leaders were and what gods they worshiped. The use of (- ham) in a place name is a clear piece of evidence to suggest Anglo-Saxon involvement in its evolution. Carson City, for instance, was named for Kit Carson, and Belo Horizonte means "beautiful view". The area that incorporates Yorkshire, East Anglia, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire show heavy Viking settlement in their place names, this is due to the existence of the Danelaw between the ninth and eleventh century. Rotherham was the village by the Rother. Similarly, Negaunee, Michigan's name is derived from the Ojibwe word nigani meaning foremost, in advance, leading, which was determined to be the closest Ojibwe approximation to the English word pioneer. Roman occupation of England left a lasting reminder that can still be seen in place names. Cambridge perhaps uniquely illustrates both normal and back formation. The exceptions are places with the prefix Llan, meaning 'Church', which often contain the name of the Saint the church is dedicated to e.g. Origins of Place Names. 'farm', 'market', 'fort') or a prominent natural feature, or both; if only one of these is present, it is often modified by a personal name or an adjective. Some general conclusions about the nature of place names, and the way in which place names change, can be made and are examined below. The Norse settlers also added other place names to the landscape. Until the 1960s it was more commonly given to boys in the United States, but it is now most often used on girls. In some cases the native meanings of a place name are wholly lost, despite guesses and theories, for example Tampa and Oregon. The vast majority of place names in Wales are Welsh by origin, containing elements such as Llan-, Aber-, Pen- etc. How Place Names Reveal Our History", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Place_name_origins&oldid=995513802, Articles with dead external links from March 2016, Articles with dead external links from February 2014, Articles needing additional references from February 2014, All articles needing additional references, Articles with limited geographic scope from September 2011, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2017, All Wikipedia articles needing clarification, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from September 2014, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Ham also had a sports slang sense of "incompetent pugilist" (1888), perhaps from the notion in ham-fisted. Ham and ton are regularly combined in Anglo-Saxon names, and Northampton and Littehampton are prominent examples of this. A great many names that appear to be Native American in origin were created by non-Natives with at best a rudimentary grasp of native languages. The case is slightly more ambiguous for natural features, depending on how exactly 'place' is defined, and what exactly the concept of a 'place' is used for. Scunthorpe translates as either Scun's farm or Scun's land. Shem stands for the mindset that allows a worldview irrespective of the self. of platys "broad," from PIE root *plat-"to spread.". At … Llansantffraid - 'Church of St. Bridget'. The notion of "amateurish" led to the sense of "amateur radio operator" (1919). ham (v.) "over-act in performance," 1933, from ham (n.2). There are several clearly definable types of place name, the primary division being between the names of natural features and the names of human settlements. There are several arguments connected with these place names. 2. Etymology. From an English surname that was originally derived from place names meaning "ash tree clearing", from a combination of Old English æsc and leah. Of course in Canada, you have a lot of French influence in parts and some First Nation names. This indicates "people" in a place name. Place names ending in -by , such as Selby, Grimsby, Derby or Whitby are places that the Vikings first settled. The capital city. Bermondsey Bermondsey takes its name from a Saxon landowner. A good example is the London area of Hampstead which ties in the word components “ham”, meaning home, village, estate or farm, with “stead”, meaning place so that the full word means Home Place. Version Française disponible ici Prénom Ham These place names usually refer to where farms once existed, but they can also refer to where a secondary settlement once stood. Any place which has caistor or chester in their name usually denotes a settlement with a direct link to the Roman Military encampments. This article lists a number of common generic forms in place names in the British Isles, … Places such as Luton, Bolton, Accrington, Malton and Stilton are towns that grew under the Anglo-Saxons. The (-by) has since passed into common usage in the English language and can be seen in 'by-law' which means the local law of the town or village. Many English place names can be peculiar and perplexing, even to those who live there. Pasadena, California's early Anglo residents, looking for a pleasant sounding (euphonious) name for the town, used the Ojibwe word pa-sa-de-na, which means of the valley. The use of (-ley) in a place name indicates that the settlement originates from a forest clearing. share. These (-by) endings, effectively meant it was a village or settlement. place (n.) c. 1200, "space, dimensional extent, room, area," from Old French place "place, spot" (12c.) In the 21st century, real estate developers often conduct historical research in order to craft a name for a modern development that connects to the local history of the community. Place names in the United States tend to be more easily traceable to their origins, such as towns simply named after the founder or an important politician of the time, with no alterations except a simple suffix, like -town. Modern London has changed drastically since the time of Roman Londinium. King Harold was of Danish origin himself. Barking Barking was Berica ingas, which means Berica's people. It was a colony of the Danish leaders and it kept the Anglo-Saxon leaders on edge for many generations. Abbreviation tends to break down a name into a more easily pronounced form, e.g. Many in the former New Netherland colony are of Dutch origin, such as Harlem, Brooklyn and Rhode Island. Elaboration of place names often occurred to make distinctions between similarly named settlements. Evolution of the parent language may not change a place name by itself; indeed names may show more inertia to change than languages themselves. In general, the Anglo-Saxon and Norse place names tend to be rather mundane in origin, the most common types being [personal name + settlement/farm/place] or [type of farm + farm/settlement] (almost all towns ending in -wich, -ton, -ham, -by, -thorpe, -stoke/stock are of these types). It was Beormund's eg. Their idea was to explain the origin of Africans by tracing African languages back to a certain part of the world. The historic market town of Stamford (Stone-crossing) is a surviving Anglo-Saxon settlement. Experts in the history of names can tell uswhich were Viking names, so when we come across one, we can be sure that thiswas a settlement which came into Scandinavian possession. Many, many place names in New England came from places in England. England has been linguistically shaped by the Norman Conquest, Viking settlement, Anglo-Saxon invasion and Roman occupation. Countries which have seen repeated large-scale cultural and/or linguistic changes, such as England or France, tend to have more broken down place names, as the original meaning is forgotten and drifts more quickly. The British town Bristol was … Place names ending in -thorpe, such as in Scunthorpe; are dotted across the English countryside. Many are Gaelic, but many are also from the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages (such as Ayr). More Filters. With every successive immigration, we find a different way to describe the land. However, often the name may be recycled and altered in some way. Fort Knox, Thunder Bay, Little Rock and so on. 3. Old Norse was the North Germanic language spoken by the peoples of ancient Scandinavia. These apply to both the names of settlements and natural features, although more so to the former. . … There is still controversy over the language of these roots. Most English place-names are made up of two elements (though some are threeor more). Bacillus botulinum was later placed in the genus Clostridium (from Greek kloster meaning spindle), while some debate still existed over the basis for the species name. However, as names are applied on a larger scale, they may become less useful as place names. The capital city of England rests upon the foundations of the Roman town of Londinium. Most old Roman settlements, whether actually inhabited or not, were given the title of -chester/caster in Anglo-Saxon (from the Latin castrum, 'camp' or its plural form castra); the specific names for each may only have little relation to the Roman names (e.g. Conversely, countries with a more uniform cultural/linguistic history tend to have less broken down and diverse place names - Wales for instance (especially when compared to neighbouring England). I do find the subject very interesting. 5 5. comments. [20] (see List of counties in Michigan.) Since Noah represents all of mankind (see our article on the name Noah or on the Chaotic Set Theory), Noah's sons represent the three major categories of human mentality. English: topographic name from Old English hamm, denoting a patch of flat, low-lying alluvial land beside a stream (often a promontory or water meadow in a river bend), or a habitational name from any of numerous places named with this word, for example in Gloucestershire, Greater London, Kent, Somerset, and Wiltshire. type. Often the Roman name for their settlements had become absorbed and adapted by successive invaders. ; A Phoenician town a little over a day's journey north of Tyre, mentioned among the boundaries of the Canaanites (Genesis 10:19).This town rose to prominence and began to oppress Israel (Judges 10:12). Other experts have argued that once the Viking language became the main language of the region, place names would naturally be named using Viking words. Colchester is a prime example. Related: Hammed; hamming. Hamilton (plural Hamiltons) A United States ten-dollar bill2000 March 9, "time4funwithu" (username), "(ASP) New Orleans - Zoey, in alt.sex.prostitution, Usenet: I think the girls all work for $200 p/hr, give or take a few Hamiltons. This is true of any culture (eg English -borough, -pool, -ham, -cester, -town; French -ville, German -burg). These elements are also clearly present in the less 'weathered' New World place names - e.g. However, some apparent meanings may be deceptive; New York was not directly named after the English city of York but after the Duke of York, who was the head of the British Navy at the time of the British take-over, and Los Angeles was not named after angels but after the Virgin Mary, or the Queen of the Angels (El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles). The origin of place names of the countries within Britain are discussed below. In Yorkshire alone there are over 200 (-by) place names, this was due to the large Yorkshire coastline acting as a gateway to fresh settlement from Scandinavia. Beverley in East Yorkshire was named due to the Beavers that once resided along the banks of the river. Most English place-names are either Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse in origin but Celtic names are to be found over the whole country, most notably in Cornwall (see below) and counties bordering Wales. THE ORIGIN OF PLACE NAMES IN LONDON. Cambridge, perhaps uniquely, illustrates both effects: originally Grontabricc, a bridge on the Granta, the name became Cantebruge and then Cambrugge, from which the river was renamed Cam. Welsh place names tend to be associated with natural features rather than people, hence elements describing rivers, hills and valleys are common. Some terms, like cumb and penn, were adopted from Celtic by Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw was the area of England that the Danish Vikings claimed by warfare from the Anglo-Saxons who had previously settled the area. If I understand correctly, -ham and -ton have the same meaning (town). For instance, if a name no longer means anything in the modified language, it may drift towards a new form; e.g. HAMPTON. For instance Brittonic. Another class studied was those relating to particular people, example: the Ancient British. For a discussion of the scientific study of place names, see, The examples and perspective in this article, Place name origins in Britain and Ireland, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Toponymy in the United Kingdom and Ireland, List of generic forms in place names in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Etymological list of counties of the United Kingdom, List of Australian place names of Aboriginal origin, List of reduplicated Australian place names, "What's in a Name? 18th and 19th century armchair historians, geographers and linguists wrote countless books to explain the etymology of place names. It does not claim to be exact; etymology is not an accurate science. Many of the native British place names have been lost to us but the foreign tongue of the recent occupier often allude to the nature of the environment. This is a list of place names in which the origin is Old Norse. Maine has 32, Vermont 36. Roman Terms: 50BC - 410 AD. Additionally, the Anglo-Saxons used tree names in conjunction with ‘ley’, which means wood or clearing. Virtually all of the place names decided on up to around the 14th Century were due to the environment of the area. By Tim Lambert. Connecticut 31, including Hartford, an archaic spelling of Hertford (the birthplace of one of Thomas Hooker’s assistants, the Rev. Place names in the United States are often taken from the European nation that first colonized the land. Their impact can be seen throughout England and most of the major settlements have a clear influence from across the North Sea. The use of (-ham) in a place name is a clear piece of evidence to suggest Anglo-Saxon involvement in its evolution. The use of (-ford) in a place name indicates the settlement was once a crossing point across a river. Many place names were shaped so long ago that nobody can be certain if any one explanation is correct. For instance, in England, two nearby and related settlements often became 'lower/nether' and 'upper/higher'; Backformation: the process whereby names are derived from one another in the opposite direction to that which would be expected - in many cases a river with an obsolete or forgotten name is renamed after a town on its banks rather than vice versa. Ireland is no exception, except that its placenames can trace their ancestry to three language families: Gaelic, English and Viking. In Cornwall most place-names are Cornish in origin, whilst in Cumbria there remain a number of place names in Cumbric, the Brythonic language of this region; examples including Carlisle, Helvellyn and Blencathra. There are also place names from Old English and Scots, such as Edinburgh. It is also possible to distinguish regional trends and differences in the naming of places, as is also discussed below. In the two thousand years since the Romans founded it, London has survived and thrived. If, as is probable, natural features were originally given names to distinguish nearby hills, streams etc. These have replaced Pictish names that still occur on the east coast. For instance, a relatively small, distinct upland valley (e.g. Before the arrival of invaders and settlers across the sea, the Ancient Britons had already named many of the original settlements but they would give way to more modern sounding cities and towns. In the islands of Scotland, particularly Orkney and Shetland, but also the Western Isles, there are many names of Norse origin; this is also true of the coasts of the mainland. From the portrait of Alexander Hamilton featured on them.. Noun []. A good example of this is England's second city- Birmingham. These settlements were usually on the margins of existing villages and were usually thought of as undesirable land( e.g Flood plains). In the Highlands, the names are primarily in Scottish Gaelic, with emphasis on natural features; elements such as Glen- (valley) and Inver- (confluence, mouth) are common. In much of the "Old World" (approximately Africa, Asia and Europe) the names of many places cannot easily be interpreted or understood;[citation needed] they do not convey any apparent meaning in the modern language of the area. From an English place name meaning "Becca's homestead". Manchester, future home of the Northern Powerhouse. Carson City, for instance, was named for Kit Carson. It gave its name … Hamm tun meant hamlet by the water meadow. Most places ending in –ham, –ton or –ington are named after otherwise forgotten Anglo-Saxon chiefs. Some of the main problems are: The names of natural or man-made features in the landscape tend to be older than those of settlements since the former are often more widely known. hide. When Europeans began arriving in New Zealand from the 17th century they gave their own names to many geographical features and settlements, often after places in Britain or important settlers or famous British people. Acton Acton comes from ac tun meaning oak farm or village. Many English places derive part of their name from the river upon which they were built, but in the 16th century many English rivers were renamed with back-formations from towns on their banks. Previously names relating to pagan religion were extensively studied as these were thought to be early. Jurisdictional terms of seats of government, justice, or punishment 4. The latter in particular can result in dramatic shifts in place names, since the original meaning (and often sounds) are not conveyed in the new language, the place name thus shifts to a form appropriate for the new language. The Maori named most of New Zealand's natural features. In some cases these are in fact related to their Welsh name, but disguised through linguistic processes of mutation, for example Monmouth and the Welsh Trefynwy both referring to the River Monnow (Mon- < Monnow < Mynwy > -fynwy). BELCHER English From a Middle English version of Old French bel chiere meaning "beautiful face". William The Conqueror army was only 33% Norman + 33% French + 33% Welsh speaking Bretons. Many others are of French origin, such as Detroit, Michigan, which was established along the banks of the river they called le détroit du lac Érié, meaning the strait of Lake Erie. French, English, Latin and Gaelic derived names occur in Canada. He has been on HubPages for many years. Most place-names are of Gaelic or Norse origin but there are traces of an earlier language in some names. Various names have been used for the island of Britain, see Britain (name). In Shropshire and Herefordshire many Welsh place names are found in the borderlands such as Pontrilas and Trefonen. The byname Becca means "pickaxe" in Old English. There are two Sidons mentioned in the Bible, a man and a town: The first born son of Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noah (Genesis 10:15). In contrast, in the "New World" (roughly North America, South America, and Australasia), many place names' origins are known. Town descriptive terms, of the form, location, characteristic, or age of the town. The fall of the Roman Empire in the British Isles allowed the Germanic tribes such as the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes to take over huge swathes of the southern half of the British Isles. Time, until their obvious meaning is lost years since the Romans founded it London! Long ago that nobody can be categorized: 1 c 1900 habitation names and feature names be certain any. Until their obvious meaning is lost of French influence in parts and some Nation! 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Or deities Yorkshire was named due to the use of ( -ton ) in a place.! N.2 ) spoken by the peoples of etymology ham place names Scandinavia Malton and Stilton are towns that under... With every successive immigration, we call the first part the 'prefix ' and thesecond part the 'suffix.... Berica ingas, which means wood or clearing exact ; etymology is not here, you are encouraged to it... Or Scun 's farm or Scun 's farm or Scun 's land many Welsh names. Anglo-Saxon invasion and Roman occupation of England rests upon the foundations of the major settlements a! Roman Londinium, names are of more diverse origin conquered in 1066 a... Lost, despite guesses and theories, for instance, was named for Kit carson recently has. French + 33 % Norman + 33 % Norman + 33 % Norman 33... 'Roch ' through this process to distinguish regional trends and differences in the Anglo-Saxon leaders on edge for many.... Noun [ ] river running through Rochdale became known as the 'Roch ' this. 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