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OLD ENGLISH PERIOD:
PLACE
NAMES
by Dr. ALEC GILL
INTRODUCTION:
Place names is an exciting aspect of our heritage - each one is drenched in history. Every sign-post could be the
basis of a book.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
One point I must stress about any place name is that it does not always follow a
logical pattern. What follows in these pages are gross generalizations. That is,
I hope simply to whet your appetite for this deep topic. For your own town names
you must double check what ever is stated here because 'ham', for example, does
not always mean 'farmstead or hamlet' - there are various possibilities.
Therefore, please explore this topic, check local sources and enjoy your own
specific research.
Many place names came into being before pen was put to
paper, so the original meaning is often guess work. When, for example, the Normans drafted
their Domesday Book
(1086) they listened to the local Anglo-Saxons people and jotted down what they
thought they had said (from a recently defeated population) according to their
French ear. Therefore, a number of in-built mistakes must have been made at that
time.
QUESTIONS:
What other names do we have for Great Britain?
BRITAIN: Why don't we speak British?
ENGLAND: Angles
SCOTLAND: Originally in Ireland (they chased the Picts out)
WALES: Foreigners?
IRELAND: From where does this name origin?
ALBANY, ALBION: Alba - White Cliffs of Dover
AULD BLIGHTY: Empire - Bilayati is Hindi for Country.
I thoroughly enjoyed researching these place names. Here is
my material divided into the following sub-headings - see links:
CELTIC BRITAIN (400 BC - 43 AD)
ROMAN / LATIN (43 - 410)
ANGLO-SAXON (450 - 800)
VIKINGS (800 - 1066)
ALFRED the GREAT (849 - 899)
NORMAN
(1066+)
RELIGIOUS
MISCELLANEOUS
GLOBAL
REF: some of the material used here was adapted from:
USHERWOOD, Stephen & Hazel. 1969. Book. Place Names:
History from Familiar Things. London. Ginn & Co.
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TO "ENGLISH"^
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