People in England. Do you know the Brythonic names & means of the places you live ?

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itsthesplund@reddit

The nearby river, The River Trent has a Brythonic origin from possibly the words for trespasser or strongly flooding.

All the names for cities, towns or villages in the East Midlands are either Anglo-Saxon or Norse in origin.

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thesaharadesert@reddit

I don’t know how old it is, but doesn’t the River Avon mean ‘river river’? If so, my username is fitting too.

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It does mean river. I am guessing that some of the rivers now called Avon had another Brythonic name which got forgotten. Later English speakers would remember that it was something Afon (Afon is Brythonic for river).

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

When you say Afon is Brythonic for river . . .
It is also Welsh for river.

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Y_ddraig_gwyn@reddit

Yes; the Welsh for river is still “afon” (pronounce ah-von)

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evelynsmee@reddit

Yes the Romans turned up pointed and said what's that and they replied "Avon" (river) 💀

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BeBraveDearHeart@reddit

And Caister Castle in Norfolk is just Castle Castle 🤣

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TheShakyHandsMan@reddit

Lots of hills called hill hill. I think there’s a few which are hill hill hill

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morquinga@reddit

Similar to the name of the (semi-)famous Wookey Hole Caves; both "Wookey" and "Hole" are older names for "Cave"...

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TheShakyHandsMan@reddit

Lots of hills called hill hill. I think there’s a few which are hill hill hill

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drawxward@reddit

With respect, I have to challenge this every time I see it.

The name Torpenhow is likely originally from Brittonic Torr-pen, comprising torr ‘bulge, ‘ + pen ‘head, summit’ . The name may thus mean ‘bulge-end’. It’s possible Tor -is from Old English torr ‘hill’. This itself is a Brittonic loanword.

The -how ending may either be a Brittonic plural ending -öü or alternatively could be Old English hōh ‘heel, hill-spur.

There is no such place as Torpenhow Hill, it’s just Torpenhow.

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UKNightWatch@reddit

There is also, I'm told, a possibility that the 'Tor' part is related too but not necessarily means 'Gate' - similar to the German use. For example 'Western Tor' in some places in Germany does not mean 'Western Hill', rather it is used as 'Western Gate' [as in the western gate of the town / city]. This explanation is highly unlikely to be correct but it is somewhat interesting as much of the English language [formed in England] is derived from the languages of our European cousins [invaders]. Not claiming to be correct here - just adding a discussion point!

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katie-kaboom@reddit

I recognise and respect your efforts, fellow toponymy enthusiast.

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

You need to do most of the talking in this post.
Please stop having life. Do NOT look outside & tell us everything!

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OverPaper3573@reddit

This guy just took Roy off the grid!

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Neither_Process_7847@reddit

Sadly, it's just hill hill hill - there's no 'hill' at the end of the village name.

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PullUpAPew@reddit

The meme refers to the hill, which is near the village

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tothecatmobile@reddit

There's also no hill.

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North_Still_2234@reddit

Pendle Hill is hill hill hill

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Brocc013@reddit

Breedon on the Hill is hill hill on the hill.

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lapsedPacifist5@reddit

Brincliffe edge in Sheffield is the same brin cliffe and edge all mean the same thing. It's generally a feature of people meeting who knows a little of each others language.

1: What's that?

2: Avon, innit

1: Ah so it's the river Avon, got it.

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kittysparkled@reddit

Eas Fors Waterfall on the Isle of Mull is Waterfall Waterfall Waterfall.

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FloydEGag@reddit

I like to imagine the Romans asking the locals what that big long watery thing was called and the locals answering ‘it’s a river’ in the tone of voice you use when explaining something to a very slow child. And lo, the Romans thought ‘Avon’ was a proper noun.

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Kapika96@reddit

Even better is the Ouseburn river. A mix of Brythonic, Anglo-Saxon, and modern English that effectively means ″river river river″.

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Dear_General1657@reddit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tautological_place_names

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divdiv23@reddit

There are several rivers with this name in the UK too

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brokenalarm@reddit

The majority of our place names aren’t Brythonic, but bastardised Roman, Anglo-Saxon, or Viking names. The etymology of place names is a fascinating subject, there’s actually a ton of research on it, though it doesn’t seem to be something many people are interested in.

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

Suppose the question I was really asking is what do people know about the lands before the major invasions.
Roughly 1600years ago there was no English language. So what were these areas called?

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Sea-Still5427@reddit

Here in East Anglia it's mostly Anglo-Saxon and old Norse. Very little Celtic.

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

Still interesting to find out current place names vs old ones.
I wonder if anybody knows the old celtic names. After all we have an idea of the names of the "tribes" in each area.

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evelynsmee@reddit

They didn't live in the same places.

You seem to be under the impression Saxon and Viking towns were built directly on top of Roman towns, in turn built on top of Iron Age settlements?

The vast majority were not. Particularly outside a handful of Roman cities (London, Bath, Chester).

Asking what the Dobunni called Bristol is the wrong way to approach the question. Bristol didn't exist.

Most of our placenames in England are Saxon, Viking, or Norman in origin. Indeed, the "English" name for Ynys Môn (Anglesey) is of Norse (Viking) origin.

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

Now that is an interesting point. I did just assume the best locations would of built uppon first & the same spot would be choosen over & over.

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evelynsmee@reddit

Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, Viking, Normans did not have the same requirements for what is "best", nor was the landscape the same.

Somerset specifically The Somerset Levels, land of the summer people, was only drained by monks in the mediaeval period. They are closer in time to us than they were the arrival of the Romans in Britain.

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

Guess I am stuck on the thought that rivers were the trade routes & the easiest way to get about. Narrowing where the "best" location were.
Discovering copper would of been a good reason to move a settlement I suppose.

(feel like I should shut up & get you to do more talking due to the extra knowlage you seem to have <3 )

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ADJB23@reddit

Yeah this always comes up in Lincoln. Roman town, was likely a few mudhuts until they arrived. Wasn’t just a build on top of existing place sort of situation.

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celtiquant@reddit

But interestingly, Bristol is the direct English transliteration of its old Welsh name Caerodor

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evelynsmee@reddit

Bristol is a corruption of Saxon meeting place at the bridge, the Saxon settlement under the current Old City centre (what is now Castle Park the bigger part of the old mediaeval town later city was bombed in the blitz).

Caerodor is fortress on the river bend, of which there was an Iron Age hillfort in Leigh Woods. The Romans established settlements at Sea Mills and Kings Weston. None of which are pre-modern era expansion Bristol, they are nearby Welsh side settlements. So it isn't a word for Bristol, it's a word for what happens to adjacent to an expanded modern city - not the same thing.

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MahatmaAndhi@reddit

Peterborough was called Meadhamstede until the Vikings vikinged their way through and murdered everyone.

According to Wikipedia:

The name has been interpreted by a place-name authority as "homestead belonging to Mede".

An alternative description is 'Medu' meaning Mead then 'Hamme' a village on a river and 'Steð'(the ð is pronounced th) meaning a bank or sea shore(the sea was about 4.5 metres higher in early saxon times), so the 'Mead village in the valley with a landing stage'

Fun Fact: it was founded by Sexwulf 🤘

I think Peterborough is just the Borough of St Peter. The English version of St Petersburg.

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Sea-Still5427@reddit

A bit like Bury St Edmunds, where I live, previously Beodericsworth before the cult of St Edmund overtook it. No Roman name as they thought the place was unhealthy and didn't stop.

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martinbaines@reddit

Bury's street plan and names are interesting too. The centre is an obvious grid as it was planned by the Abbey, whereas newer streets tend to be windy (especially the Victorian ones) which is exactly the opposite from what many people expect of town planning. The old central street names have a lot of -gates, as is found in other Saxon/Viking towns, but somehow in Bury they get "Street" stuck after them, hence "Abbeygate Street" which roughly means "Abbey Street Street".

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Sea-Still5427@reddit

I think that was a later addition when it became a grander shopping street - got a map dated 1776 in front of me where what's now Abbeygate St was Cook Row. Makes sense as when you look at the street, it would have been much too narrow for carriages to pass down. I think most of the out-of-town traffic to the Abbey would have approached on other roads.

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MPforNarnia@reddit

Aren't most British rivers just a old name for river

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Cheap-Vegetable-4317@reddit

Thames is from Tamesis, meaning Darkness, which is enjoyably sepulchral. Cocker and Cam mean crooked. Severn, Shannon and Tay are all from names of goddesses. Clwyd means hurdle. Boyne comes from a word that means White Cow!

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Normal-Height-8577@reddit

Severn, Shannon and Tay are all from names of goddesses

Either that or the goddesses were named for the rivers. It's difficult to tell at this late stage!

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Cheap-Vegetable-4317@reddit

If you are going to worship something a river isn't a bad choice.

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StalinsBabushka1@reddit

I feel like if you're going to pick a natural object to worship then the most logical options would be either the water or the sun

That being said, I'm more of a sun worshipper kind of guy

Praise be to the great bringer of light

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Cheap-Vegetable-4317@reddit

Yeah but if the river waters your crops and occasionally floods and sweeps everything away, you are going to get down on your hands beside it and knees and beg for clemency from time to time.

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StalinsBabushka1@reddit

I mean the sun has the exact same affect though. It allows your crops to grow, but can also cause a drought, which kills all of your crops.

Additionally the sun is a massive shining light above in the heavens, far beyond human reach, and even daring to look upon it can harm you.

Also, it gets more dangerous in the night when the sun isn't present. And it becomes much harder to survive in the winter, when the sun graces us with it's presence less.

536 is often called the worst year in human history, largely because a volcanic eruption (volcanoes are also a good choice to worship) caused the sun to be blotted out. The worst year in history was the one where the sun was not present.

So yeah, I can respect your rivers but the sun is quite literally above all

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Lady-Deirdre-Skye@reddit

Guys guys, we can worship the sun and the rivers. And the trees too, if we fancy. The Old Gods weren't into that new-mangled monotheistic exclusivity.

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rohepey@reddit

Obviously the sun isn't Severn, and Severn isn't the sun. Nobody "worshipped" them in that Middle Eastern tribal meaning. It was just about being respectful to them, as they were powerful and unpredictable. The way seamen respect the sea these days, and mountain folks have reverence to the mountains.

May Severn be merciful on you!

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Lady-Deirdre-Skye@reddit

The Severn isn't the sun, it's a river. A love next to it and people still venerate Sabrina, the goddess of the river in little ways.

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rohepey@reddit

Yes, I'm aware that Severn is the river. I was taking exception to the term "worship", which sort of infantilises past generations.

I'm reading that intelligence in humans hasn't meaningfully evolved in the last 10-15 thousand years, and so our ancestors weren't so dumb as to confuse a river with a goddess. I think your term "veneration" captures it much better than "worship".

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Lady-Deirdre-Skye@reddit

You're splitting hairs, mate.

I don't don't think it's 'dumb' to confuse a goddess with a river, in the context of polytheistic religion. Gods can be highly localised.

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Cheap-Vegetable-4317@reddit

People obviously did worship gods in the past, as they do now, and often gave them physical personifications as natural phenomena or saw natural phenomena as their work, so I don't see why you're so offended on their behalf.

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StalinsBabushka1@reddit

Okay but the sun better be the chief god

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Cheap-Vegetable-4317@reddit

And this we invent polytheism, or hedging your bet.

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onionsofwar@reddit

I learnt this the other day too. Apparently the word for water was the same word for darkness in early european languages. Same sound in Douro (Portugal) and others too.

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AmeliaOfAnsalon@reddit

Just the many Avons really

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onionsofwar@reddit

The river Avon = 'the river river'

Bredon Hill = Hill, hill, hill

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Joe_Kinincha@reddit

It’s not really a thing, just something that people want to make happen, but torpenhowe hill = hill hill hill hill.

It’ll get there, just like most dictionaries now list a meaning for “literally” as “figuratively”.

Yes I am old and grumpy.

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AuthenticCheese@reddit

There's others too. Ouse, for example

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LittleSadRufus@reddit

And the Ouseburn River in Newcastle is the River River River

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selfawareusername@reddit

Ouse as well but obviously from a different language

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doraisexploring27@reddit

Ding dong, river calling

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Empty_Bell_1942@reddit

There's the River Mersey which in ancient Brythonic Scouse means: D'you wanna fight!?

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Briggykins@reddit

The rivers Exe, Axe, Esk and Usk all share the same root, meaning 'full of fish'.

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SmugDruggler95@reddit

River, type of river crossing, cardinal direction from river

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GnaphaliumUliginosum@reddit

We're down the road from a Riverford Bridge.

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SmugDruggler95@reddit

Im from direction from river

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The_Nunnster@reddit

My town doesn’t have Brythonic origins, it first appears in the Domesday Book at Oderesfelt. That seems Germanic to me, either Norse or Old English. Before that, there was a Roman fort near us known as Cambodunum. I do not know the origins behind the River Colne and River Holme.

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Fenpunx@reddit

It's named after an early medievel tribe who stopped here to dry their socks out.

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GnaphaliumUliginosum@reddit

Was that the follow up to 'While shepherds washed their socks at night, all seated on the ground?'

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catmadwoman@reddit

Isn't there a town built around the Sunlight name.

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Fenpunx@reddit

Probably the cause of washing your socks. You don't want to be soaking them in marsh water.

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

Haha what's the place called?

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Fenpunx@reddit

Spalding.

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

I'm not sure what Brythonic means but I am interested

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

For me it's the time period before English was spoken.
Since then the word Brythonic has mutated into British.

Just think when the Roman arrived there was no English language.
Boudica (Queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe) wouldn't of been an Enlgish speaker.

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Hick-ford@reddit

I come from Mael-Dune!

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AssumptionBudget279@reddit

I do, I assume a lot of us have looked it up out of curiosity? But I wouldn’t know about everyone else.

My town is named after people who used to live there.

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audigex@reddit

Most places names round me are Norse, so no I don't spend much time on the Brittonic names that preceded them because they've mostly been lost to the sands of time

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TALongjumping-Bee-43@reddit

Fun fact, the word Combe you see in south England (Wycombe, Ilfracombe, Castle Combe, etc) is of the same origin as the welsh word "Cwm", both meaning a valley.
Amazing just how long place names live!

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TALongjumping-Bee-43@reddit

Also, if this kind of thing is of interest to you, you might enjoy Yan Ten Tethera. It varies from region to region in England, but you can also see the similarities to welsh and Scots counting too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_tan_tethera

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ConceptUnusual@reddit

A lot of Yorkshire place names are old Norse in origin

Lots of "thorpe" and "by" suffixes.

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p1971@reddit

Lincoln was originally Lindum (pool town - I think Dublin is black pool) ... Romans arrived and it became Lindum Colonia ... then lots of weird spelling changes til we get the modern verison

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kalendral_42@reddit

Toepenhow Hill - actually translates to Tor (hill) pen (hill) how (hill) Hill, so basically Hillhillhill Hill

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KingStevoI@reddit

Bedford was named after an old Saxon king/chief named Beda who'd likely ruled a fortified settlement of some sort on a ford along the river Ouse (river river).

Bedford's Castle Mound is the only remains of the 11-12th century castle built there that replaced a prior to wooden fort built around 1066, that in turn replaced the Saxon settlement was.

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Findon1968@reddit

I’m from a Coombe so yeah

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FloydEGag@reddit

London is Brythonic in origin isn’t it? In Welsh it’s Llundain which is similar to the Roman name, which was derived from the local one (something like Lundunion though ofc it was never written down)

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

Double checking required. I thought it started as a Roman town.

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Pattatilla@reddit

Londinum?

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FloydEGag@reddit

There was already a small settlement there when the Romans arrived, according to archaeological evidence. It just became bigger/more important under the Romans

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_London

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EldritchCleavage@reddit

There is a lovely book called The Lore of the Land which explains British place names. Lots of good stuff on Substack too.

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SpinMeADog@reddit

the vast, vast majority of people would have no clue what Brythonic means. also, there's not that many modern places still with Brythonic names, anyways

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

That is pretty much why I ask. Wanted to see how many people were aweare of their own history or if knowlage about history only goes as far back as the English language.
That said Boudica would not of spoken English & most people have herd of her

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elbapo@reddit

Very few brythonic place names in england, but i am a bit of a place name etymology geek

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selfawareusername@reddit

Do you watch Robwords on youtube if not then check out his video on British place names. He also does a good podcast.

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Artistic-Cream6921@reddit

Yes. I live in Wales and love researching old places names and why they were called that. Really interesting, I find.

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selfawareusername@reddit

When I found out that Aber basically means river mouth it suddenly made so many place names make sense

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neilm1000@reddit

Do you know the Brythonic names & means of the places you live?

Most places in England don't have Brythonic names. I do think about the origin of names though, although I am not we can even describe a lot of names as Brythonic when we don't know know enough about early P-Celtic languages/use.

I am a (not very good) Welsh speaker. My mum also speaks Cornish and I did some Cornish at school, and my stepmum and dad speak some Breton (he also speaks Welsh). We're a bit of P-Celtic mish mash. I don't think we've ever discussed Brythonic names.

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Inthepurple@reddit

There are actually quite a few, especially rivers. Leeds for example is Brythonic

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TheShakyHandsMan@reddit

An older name for Leeds is Leodis/Loidis not sure if they’re Brythonic

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selfawareusername@reddit

You're both right. It seems it was originally Brittonic but was then Latinised to Leodis and is why people from Leeds are Leodensians

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Inthepurple@reddit

They are, and so is the River Aire that runs through it

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trysca@reddit

York is ultimately from Eburakōn which is place of yews ( via Eboracum, Efrawg , Éoferwic, Jórvik )

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selfawareusername@reddit

My fun fact is the river Cam was named after Cambridge. It was originally the Granta (and I think still is upstream) but they wanted it to make sense so around Cambridge it becomes the Cam.

The possible origin is that after the conquest the French speaking Nobles pronounced Granta differently but that might just be folk etymology

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trysca@reddit

Of course - every day - but then I live on border of Devon and Cornwall.

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

So we could say that they are horney people. . .

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trysca@reddit

Yes, but more boringly in this sense it means 'promontory of land'

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GnaphaliumUliginosum@reddit

Well Julian did like to take Sandy Round the Horne.

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matthewbowers88@reddit

Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Dewy's fort. Built on the river Calder where St Paulinus used to teach apparently.

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Brilliant_Bowler_994@reddit

Wasn't the Thames called Isis?

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Cheap-Vegetable-4317@reddit

Thames and Isis are both from the word Tamesis (Tamesa in Brythonic). The top part closest to the source is now the Isis and the part closer to the sea is the Thames.

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Brilliant_Bowler_994@reddit

Im learning a lot. 'Waterway to have fun' as Alan Partridge once exclaimed..

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

Strangely only parts of it was known as Isis. Around the Oxford area.

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Albert_Herring@reddit

There was a folk etymology to the effect that the Thames (Tamesis in Latin) was the merger of the Isis and the Thame (which meet in Oxford, but I'm pretty sure that's a back-formation of some kind.

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Brilliant_Bowler_994@reddit

Oh ok thanks.

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Upset-Elderberry3723@reddit

Before modern cartography and forms of navigation, giving district names to sections of rivers probably made a lot more sense. Different sections can have their own unique features, wildlife, direction and flow, and the names help specify better when describing something that happened there.

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bopeepsheep@reddit

Thamesis. Lots of things in Oxford have Latinised name. Thame, however, may well be a Brythonic place name.

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neilm1000@reddit

Only on the Oxford bit, from the Cotswalds to Dorchester-on-Thames

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Ulfgeirr88@reddit

There's a town about 10 miles from where I live and the name is a mix of brythonic and old norse

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

What are the names & do you have any clue about the meanings ?

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Ulfgeirr88@reddit

Oakengates, the oaken bit is brythonic (usc con) usc meaning lake/water, con being the confluence of 2 streams and gata is old norse for path, so, the road at the vale of the waters

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katie-kaboom@reddit

To an extent, yes. Cambridge's Anglo-Saxon name was originally Grontabricc (ca. 745AD), then Grantabrycge (ca. 871-890D), meaning "the bridge over the river Granta" (Anglian dialect).

Further down the rabbit hole, the name "Granta" (the name used for the Cam upstream of Cambridge) is of Celtic origin, but it's unclear what it means. It may refer to Caer Grauth, one of the cities of Britain identified in Nennius' Historia Brittonum. However, Nennius was a Welsh monk (again, wrong side of the country) and it's unlikely that's how the inhabitants would have referred to the settlement. It's possible that it was Caergrawnt or something like it in Old Brittonic, meaning "the fort on the river Granta", but we still don't know what Granta means.

Going back further, the settlement was called Duroliponte by the Romans. In Latin, Duroliponte means something like "the fort at the bridge".

We don't know what it was called by the pre-Roman peoples.

So basically, at least as far back as the Romans, Cambridge has been named for its defining feature: nice hill beside a river, good place to put a bridge and a fort.

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celtiquant@reddit

Caergrawnt, of course, is the Welsh name for Cambridge

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bob_the_rod@reddit

Grantchester lies just outside of Cambridge on the river Cam. Name checked in the Pink Floyd song, Grantchester Meadows.

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Norklander@reddit

I sat listening to grantchester meadows on grantchester meadows this time last year. Very cathartic.

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katie-kaboom@reddit

Local boys!

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

That was the most mentally stimulating thing I have come across this year.
Thank you for writing it !
As a reward here is your Oscar ( upto you if you want it as an Oscar trophy. Oscar dog or a small slave boy names Oscar ).

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Rydeeee@reddit

Good old king snot. Thanks mate.

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museedarsey@reddit

I don’t know who King Snot is but he sounds marginally more interesting than the unready one.

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jeffcarpthefisheater@reddit

Snot is the guy Nottingham is named from. Apparently it used to be Snottingham.

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Artistic-Cream6921@reddit

Quite right. Snotta-inga-ham, the 'homestead of Snotta's people.'

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Albert_Herring@reddit

Not Brythonic but I don't think there are any signs of a pre-Saxon settlement here. I think that the earlies settlement might actually be around Sneinton (which is also traceable to Snoda or whatever his name was - he appears to have had both a Ham and a Tun, which is just greedy).

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museedarsey@reddit

A new tidbit. Thank you all!

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DTH2001@reddit

Sussex is full of Coombes (with variations on spelling).

The connection to the modern Welsh word cwm is fairly clear.

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trysca@reddit

This is interesting because we have absolutely loads in Devon too but komm is very rarely used as a placename in Cornwall, it's nearly always nans meaning valley.

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Truewit_@reddit

Hen Ogledd. The south is Lloegyr the lost kingdom.

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celtiquant@reddit

Well, not really… this video says why

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Realistic-River-1941@reddit

Only a vague awareness that a lot of things are called River River, Hill Hill, Lake Pond etc.

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MeesterMartinho@reddit

Dose anybody think about the times before English was spoken & the origins of all rivers names & such ?

Is this a Spinal Tap lyric?

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Paulstan67@reddit

It's not just brythonic, but many places names do have interesting origins.

Many people have zero interest in the origins, or history in general.

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Albert_Herring@reddit

I know a supposed one, but I'm not convinced it's not just a modern(ish) coining, Tigguo Cobauc.

Also I come from the Chilterns (probably itself Brythonic according to Ekwall) originally, and there are a few village names around there which don't fit the common Germanic patterns - Wendover could well be "white water", something like "gwyn dyfry" in (probably bad, sorry) modern Welsh, but also in that area Ballinger, Pednor, and so on.

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Historical_Project86@reddit

Yes, we all spoke an old version of what we call Welsh today. I'm from and live in Casnewydd, and yes I know that this means Newcastle. Perhaps this is more interesting for people in England living in places which sound Welsh. Just across the water is the mouth of the River River.

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OllyDee@reddit

No, a lot of those place names have been wiped away by the sand of time, but the ones that still exist are recognised as such by historians. The average Englishman probably has no idea though.

For me personally yes, it’s something I take a great deal of interest in. My home county of Dorset was probably on the frontlines of Saxon expansion before it was allegedly stymied at Badon Hill, and I find that fascinating a long with all the local history of the Britons.

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

There is always a tiny chance all that could change. Just last week there was an artical about a cave under Pembroke castle with hippo bones discovered.

Do you have any interesting historical facts about Dorset ? Nothing beats local knowlage.

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deadeyes1990@reddit

Yeah, I love stuff like this. Makes the whole country feel a bit haunted in a nice way.

You’ll be stood in some very normal place — retail park, wet roundabout, pub that smells faintly of chips — and then find out the name underneath it all is basically some ancient word for “river” or “fort by the water” or whatever.

It’s weirdly comforting. Like Britain isn’t one thing, it’s just layers and layers of people naming the same hills, streams and muddy little crossings, then vanishing, but leaving the words behind.

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Polythene_pams_bag@reddit

The place I’m from was in Anglo Saxon times called Gislheresuuyrth

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njsp2@reddit

Most names where I live in Surrey are old English. But Leatherhead, which is down the road from me, is thought to be Brythonic and mean either the grey ford or the public ford. Personally I prefer the latter theory: there are lots of other colour + river names in this part of Surrey. Dorking, though obviously a Saxon -inga name, may have a Brythonic first half from dorce meaning clear. And Guildford (though old English) may be a reference to the sandy nature of the river Wey there.

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TheShakyHandsMan@reddit

I know as it was the name of the local pub.

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ItsDominare@reddit

I know the area I live in is only one letter different now than it was the 3rd century, but no I don't really think about place names.

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

What is & was the name ?

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SarcasmAndAutism@reddit (OP)

Got any interesting facts for us ?
What is the town called now & what was it ? Whats the rivers name ?

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