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.
111 place names
“town of the hurdled ford”
“mouth of the tidal ford”
“oak grove”
“province of the Ulaid”, the early people of the north (Old Irish Ulaid, “Ulstermen”)
said to mean “stony”, after the old name of the River Corrib
possibly from lom na n-each, “bare (grassless) field of the horses”
“province of the Connachta”, a name built on the personal name Conn
“bridge of the ford”
“province of the Laigin”, the people of Leinster (Old Irish Laigin, “Leinstermen”)
“church of sloes”
“church of Cainneach”
“abounding in shells”
“Tuathal’s sickle”
“the middle town”
“fort of Dealga”
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
from inis “island” and Ceithleann
“crooked mill”
“the virgin plain”, from ógh “whole, intact” and má “plain”
“fort of Ó Cúis”; the short form An Daingean means “the fortress”
“the cave”, possibly a folk reshaping of Odhbha, a name from legend
“estuary of the water”, from gaoth “estuary” and dobhar “water”
“port of the small fort”
“ringfort of the gamblers”
“fort of Laoghaire”, after Lóegaire mac Néill
“new town of the height”
“nook of ferns”
“church of the oak”
“strand of the River Lee”, a small river in County Kerry
“Fergus’s rock”
“church of Mantán”
“island”
named after the mythological figure Lathar
“wood of Saint Comán”
perhaps from a diminutive of scib, from English “skiff”
perhaps originally “burial place”
from lorga “shin” or “stalk”
“the camp” or “the stronghold”
“honey meadow”
from cionn “head, headland” and sáile “brine, sea water”
“the little churches”
Common place-name elements
Many names are built from a few common words. Pick one to see every place that uses it.
- cill · church (8)
- baile · town, settlement (7)
- dún · fort (6)
- áth · ford (5)
- droichead · bridge (4)
- inis · island (4)
- ros · wood; headland (4)
- ceann · head, headland (3)
- cúige · province (3)
- mainistir · monastery, abbey (3)
- ard · height (2)
- carraig · rock (2)
- daingean · fortress (2)
- gleann · glen, valley (2)
- leitir · hillside (2)
- nua · new (2)
- port · landing place, harbour; bank; fortified place, stronghold (2)
- ráth · ringfort (2)
- trá · strand, beach (2)
- beag · small, little (1)
- béal · mouth (1)
- bealach · way, pass (1)
- bearna · gap (1)
- caiseal · stone fort (1)
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).