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
from porth “port” and tywyn “sand dune”
from long “ship”
“nose of the fairy hill”
“town of the strait”
“black stream”, from doo “black” and glish “stream”
from am “at, near” and llwch “water”
“animal island”, from Old Norse Dýrey
“Ó Leighin’s rock”
“boar’s head”
“mouth of the River Tyleri”
“church of the headland”
“the glens”
“fort of the foreigners”
perhaps from an old Celtic word for “hill”
from rhos “moor”, llannerch “clearing” and grugog “heathery”
“Baldwin’s town”, from tref “town” and Baldwin (Faldwyn), after the Norman lord Baldwin de Boulers
“church of Dewi”, the Welsh form of David
“land of Eoghan”
“plain of yew trees”
“mouth of the River Teifi”
“abbey of the (River) Feale”
“Saint Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio of the red cave”
“wattle”, from Old Welsh bancor
“gap”
originally Pontardulais, “bridge at the mouth of the Dulais”, from pont “bridge”, aber “mouth” and the River Dulais
“Faithlinn’s island”
from tre “farmstead” and din “fort”
from sean “old” and treibh “tribe”
Keith probably comes from a Pictish word for “wood”
“place of hills”
“mouth of the River Afan”
from pen “head” and llech “rock”
“church of Saint Stephen”
from bala, “outflow from a lake”
“Saint Mary’s Church by the fort of Einion”
“harbour”
“the fortress”
probably from Old Norse herað, “district”
possibly “little Ireland”
“riverside meadow of An Treoch”
“place of Cein”, a personal name
from hen “old”, tŷ “house” and gwyn “white”; ar Daf means “on the River Taf”
“church site of Anta”, a Cornish saint
“mouth of the River Garry”
named after Cairpre Músc, son of the High King Conaire Cóem
“a green or grassy place”
“land’s end”
“well of the (River) Ara”
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
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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).