Celtic Place-Name Explainer
See what Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, Breton and Manx place names mean, how to say them, and where they are.
339 place names
“town of the hurdled ford”
“green hollow”, from an early British language
“mouth of the tidal ford”
from a Pictish word for “bush, thicket”
“fort on the River Taff”
“oak grove”
“province of the Ulaid”, the early people of the north (Old Irish Ulaid, “Ulstermen”)
probably from a Celtic word for “piglet”
“mouth of the River Ness”
said to mean “stony”, after the old name of the River Corrib
“high court”, from lys “court” and ardh “height”
from a Pictish word aber, “confluence”, and the River Don
possibly from lom na n-each, “bare (grassless) field of the horses”
“loch of the (River) Ness”, its main outflow
“mouth of the River Tawe”
often read as “good fort”, from dùn “fort”; the second part is disputed and may be the personal name Daig
“province of the Connachta”, a name built on the personal name Conn
from yr “the”, Middle Welsh gwyð “grave, burial mound” and crug “cairn, tumulus”
“island of Môn”; Môn goes back to the old Celtic name *Monā, first recorded in Latin as Mona
“bridge of the ford”
said to come from Fib, one of the seven sons of the legendary Pictish king Cruithne; it may instead be linked to Uip, a name in the Pictish king lists
“province of the Laigin”, the people of Leinster (Old Irish Laigin, “Leinstermen”)
likely from old words for “stream” and “pool”
“Ì of Saint Columba”
“uplands”
“church of sloes”
“church of Cainneach”
the first part is dùn “fort”; the rest is of uncertain origin
“clay bay”, from Old Norse Leirvík
“martyr Tudful”: here merthyr means a shrine over a martyr’s relics
“fort of the thicket”
“abounding in shells”
“mouth of the River Ystwyth”
“rudder bay”, from Old Norse Stjórnavágr
“little bay”
“holy headland”
“Tuathal’s sickle”
“the middle town”
“fort of Dealga”
“church bay”: Kirkwall comes from Old Norse Kirkjuvágr
from Conmhaicne Mara, “the Conmhaicne of the sea”, a branch of an early people
“Garman’s lake”
“height of Macha”
“tumulus”, a burial mound
“yew of the head of the strand”
from English “cove”; the town took this Irish form when it was renamed in the 1920s
“hillside of Ceanann”
“town of Luan’s ford”; Luan is a personal name
Common place-name elements
Many names are built from a few common words. Pick one to see every place that uses it.
- llan · church, parish (26)
- aber · river mouth, confluence (16)
- caer · fort (9)
- cill · church (8)
- porth · port, harbour, cove (8)
- baile · town, settlement (7)
- pont · bridge (7)
- dún · fort (6)
- pen · head, top, end (6)
- áth · ford (5)
- tref · town (5)
- droichead · bridge (4)
- inis · island (4)
- ros · wood; headland (4)
- cwm · valley (4)
- tŷ · house (4)
- dùn · fort, fortress (4)
- ceann · head, headland (3)
- cúige · province (3)
- mainistir · monastery, abbey (3)
- castell · castle (3)
- coed · wood, forest, trees (3)
- din · fort, stronghold (3)
- dôl · meadow (3)
Go deeper than the map
blas. teaches the language behind the places: vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Free to start.
Meanings and glosses are adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and the other sources cited on each page. Map and area data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).