BBC HomeExplore the BBC

20 June 2013
Accessibility help
Text only
BBC Wales Whats in a nameBBC Wales - Features


BBC Homepage
Wales home

› What's in a Name
Contact Us

Like this page?
Send it to a friend!
 
Swansea sign

What's in a name?

A brief introduction to Welsh place names by Professor Hywel Wyn Owen, Director of the Place name Research Centre at the University of Wales Bangor.

'What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet'.

The name itself, it seems, doesn't matter so much. But Shakespeare didn't really have place names in mind, did he?

Certainly not! A place name can carry in its pack centuries of history, it can tell us what the landscape was like a millennium ago, it can reveal features of a language long disappeared.

Take one example. Take Swansea. It's by the sea and the Swans football team play there. What could be simpler? However, look at the first documentary evidence for the place name Swansea and you're back in the 10th to 12th centuries. The evidence points to Viking forays (probably from Ireland) along the coast of Wales and undoubtedly to some settlements too, because a coin was minted c.1140 with the name Swensi, suggesting at the very least a trading post of some kind.

But what does the name Swansea mean? The first element or component of the name is a Scandinavian personal name Sveinn and the second element is the Norse word ey which means 'island'. This is the element seen at the end of several Welsh coastal names such as Anglesey, Bardsey, Ramsey and Caldy.

Where is that island in Swansea today? Historians have suggested that it was somewhere in the estuary of the Tawe, and still there centuries later (because of references to Iland 1400, Iselond 1432 and Island 1641) but removed during the construction of the docks in the 19th century.

Take the Welsh name for Swansea, Abertawe. The first element aber occurs many times in Wales, usually for the 'mouth of a river, an estuary.'

The second element is the river name Tawe, which belongs to a group of Celtic and European river names all meaning something like 'flow' (although it was once believed to mean 'dark'). In that group are, for example, the rivers Team, Tame, Thames and Taff. Notice that Tamion was the name given by the Romans to their fort at Cardiff. Is it not interesting that Cardiff, Swansea and London are on rivers with the same linguistic source?

Interpreting place names

What have we learnt by looking at the names of just one place? It certainly shows that interpreting place names depends largely on documentary evidence and not on blissfully assigning meaning on the basis of the modern form.

This place name put us in touch with a Viking individual. We have learnt a Norse word, a topographical element which we can relate to other place names in Wales, and use it to build a picture of incursion, settlement and migration a millennium ago. We have evidence of a coastal feature which was in existence until industrial exploitation changed the coastal profile. We can go back to an extremely old river name, in existence long before recorded history. What's in a name? A great deal!

The BBC Wales What's in a name? project is intended to promote an interest in our place names and, with your help, to reveal how place names interpret the history, language and landscape of Wales. Understand the meaning of a place name and you will be closer to knowing the place.

Your Comments

Karin, Pennsylvania, USA
Thanks so much for this wonderful site! It is nice to hear Cymraeg spoken and to learn more about where much of my family (Jones and Davies) came from.

Bernard Leak from Staffordshire
for Dorinda Mccann above:"Stella Maris" is pure Latin: "star of thesea". The "-is" is here a genitive ending.If you try to make this work for "Beaumaris" you run into two problems:firstly, "Beau" is clearly relativelylate French - from a time when possessivesin "s" were stone dead in French - andthere's nothing to explain a possessiveanyway. The Latin plural of "mare" was"maria" (neuter), with no "-s". Onemight be able to arm-wrestle "beaux mers"(from modern French, which has lost itsold neuters just as i! t has lost its old possessives) into "Beaumaris", but therecorded forms of the name are against it.

Gerald Millar from Bargod
I find your website very informative and interesting

Edward Ebden Castell frrwyn,Upper Llanover
Hello it's a great website and programme for a fascinating subject. But one thing that bugs me is why on earth do we need place signs in Welsh and English when the name is almost identical apart from a letter, for example Barri and Barry or Llanhelen and Lanhelen? I can well understand Aberhonddu and Brecon but I find the signing of almost identical names rather silly. Would it not be better to use the more traditional Welsh name or get local agreement first for the road sign?

angela from Tywyn
Very good website Most interesting. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the programme.

Janet Flint
This is a very good, helpful,site.It makes a subject which could be boring very interesting.

Dorinda Mccann
Very interesting programme; one thing that did puzzle me, if Beau Maris means beautiful marsh then why does Stella Maris translate as Star of the sea?

JOHN JEFFREYS
The element 'sea - Island ' in 'Swansea' also occurs in the English place name 'Battersea' (London) which is supposed to have originally meant St. Patrick's Island.

Wally Davies SULLY
Can you clear up once and for all the origin of the name of my village Sully.

Bill Jepson, Holyhead.
Hi I enjoyed this new program on place names and noted with interest the place named Dale which evolved from the name valley. I come from Sheffield and noted with interest that there are lots of places in the Peak District, such as Millers Dale, Dove Dale etc. and these are all names of valleys

Chris WIlliams
Having lived my whole life in a village called Rhosllanerchrugog, near Wrexham. I look forward to the series. Hopefully my interpretation of my village is correct "Glade of the Heathery Moor".

Jonathan
Definitely! about time too. I feel quite ashamed were in a country where, although about 75% of the places are in Welsh people can't pronounce, spell or understand them! If this happened anywhere else it would be seen as illiteracy! people need to forget which language it comes from and learn/ understand & pronounce all names-this should be essential in all schools whether English or Welsh. It's a part of a historical culture that 's some of the oldest in Europe - how many hours a month I waste on the telephone getting people to struggle through addresses, when they live here! get it on the agenda! and in schools!

ainsley thomas from neath
Fascinating stuff, names have always aroused my curiosity good site.

Dave Collins Cardiff
This is good - so involved, could go on for a long time and back forever almost!

Llew Smith, Swansea
Extremely interesting,I look forward to making great use of this service.

Add your comments to this page here:




The BBC reserves the right to select and edit comments. Find out how to make sure your comments are published.



About the BBC | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy