British place names

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Term	Origin	Meaning	Example	Position	Comments
aber	Cornish, Welsh	Mouth (of river), confluence	Aberystwyth	prefix
ac	OE	acorn or oak tree	Accrington, Matlock
afon	Pictish, Cornish, We	River	River Avon
ar	Irish, Gaelic	height	Armagh
ash	OE	ash-tree	Ashton under Lyne
auch	Irish, Gaelic	field	Auchenshuggle		Also linked to auchen-, ach-. anglicised from achadh. Ach- is generally the Highland form, and Auch- the lowland. Auchen- "means field of the X" (Achadh nan X)
auchter-	Gaelic, Irish	height, top of something	Auchtermuchty	prefix	anglicised from Uachdar
axe	?Britonic	from isca, meaning water	Exeter, River Axe		Variations: exe, usk
ay	Old Norse	Island	Orkney	usually suffix	Varitions: y, ey
bal	Gaelic, Irish	farm, homestead	Ballamory	prefix	Variations are : balla, bally, ball. Anglicised from baile
beck	OE, Old Norse	Stream	Holbeck	suffix
berg	OE, Old Norse	hill	Roseberry Topping		Variations: berry. In Farnborough (OE Fernaberga), berg has converged toward borough
bex	OE	box, the tree	Bexley		The OE name of Bexhill-on-Sea was Bexelei, a glade where box grew.
blen	Cumbric, Welsh	fell, hill, upland	Blaenau Ffestiniog		Variations: blaen.
bost	Old Norse	farm	Leurbost	suffix	cf. ster, (bol)sta�r; this form is usually found in the Outer Hebrides
bourne	OE	brook, stream	Eastbourne, Bournemouth		Variation: burn
brad	OE	broad	Bradford	prefix
bre	Cumbric, Welsh, Corn	hill	Carn Brea	prefix
bury	OE	Fortified enclosure	Banbury	suffix	Also linked to borough, brough, burgh
by	Old Norse	settlement village	Grimsby	suffix	Also appears in bylaw and byelection
caer	Cumbric, Welsh	Fort	Caerdydd		Variation: car. Influenced by Latin?
carden	Pictish	thicket	Cardenden	suffix
cester	L	camp, fortification (of Roman origin)			Variant on caster, chester, ceter
cheap	Old English	Market	Chipping Norton		Variaation: chipping. Also as part of a street name, e.g. Cheapside. 'Chippenham' is from a personal name.
coed	Welsh	wood, forest	Betws-y-coed
combe	OE	Valley	High Wycombe	suffix
cot	OE	cottage, small building	Didcot	suffix
cul	OE	narrow	culham, culceth
cum	Latin	with	Salcott-cum-Virley		Hyphenated between two names. Used to combine two parishes into one
cwm	Welsh, Cumbric	Valley	Cwmaman		Variation: cum
dal	Gaelic, Irish	meadow, low lying area by river	Dalry	prefix	Probably influenced by Pictish Dol
dale	OE, Old Norse	valley OE, allotment OE	Airedale	suffix	Cognate with thal (Ger.), dalr (ON)
dean	Old English	valley	Croydon, Buckden	suffix	Variation: den. the geography is often the only indicator as to the original root word (cf. don, a hill)
din	Welsh	fort	Dinas Powys		Variation: dinas. Homologous to 'dun'; see below
Don	Old English	Hill	Abingdon	suffix
drum	Gaelic, Irish	ridge, back	Drumchapel	prefix	Anglicised from druim
dun	Gaelic, Irish	fort	Dundee, Dumbarton	prefix	Variation: dum.
ey	OE	island	Ely, Romsey		Old English was eg. Variation: ea, eg, eig
field	Old English	open land	Sheffield	suffix
fin	Gaelic	Holy	Findochty	prefix	Anglicised from 'fionn'
firth	OE	wood	Holmfirth	suffix
ford	Old English	Ford, Crossing	Oxford	suffix	?Allied to bridge - see Cambridge
Forth	Old English	Bridge, Crossing	Ampleforth	suffix	?Allied to bridge
fos	Latin, OE	ditch	Fosse Way		Variation: foss. Separate from ON 'foss, force'
foss	Old Norse	waterfall	Aira Force		Variation: force
garth	Old Norse	enclosure	Aysgarth
gate	Old Norse	road	Holgate
gill	Old Norse	ravine	gillamoor		Variation: ghyll
glen	Gaelic, Irish	narrow valley, dale	Rutherglen	suffix	Anglicised from gleann
ham	OE	homestead	Nottingham	suffix	Often confused with hamm (enclosure)
hithe	Old English	Landing place	Rotherhithe	suffix	Variation: hythe
holm	Old English	island	Holmfirth
hope	Old English	valley, enclosed area	Woolhope	suffix
hurst	OE	(wooded) hill	Dewhurst	suffix
ing	OE	People of	Hastings, Reading		Also plural: Hastings and can be combined with ham, Nottingham, Birmingham
inver	Gaelic	Mouth or confluence of a river	Inverness	prefix	Like Welsh "aber"
keld	Old Norse	spring	Keld
keth	Cumbric	wood	Penheth		See also Welsh caed - ?homophone
kil	Gaelic, Irish	Monastic cell	Kilmarnock	prefix	Anglicised from Cill
kin	Gaelic, Irish	head	Kincardine	preifx	Anglicised from Ceann
kirk	Old Norse	church	Kirkwall, Ormskirk
kyle	Gaelic	narrows	Kule of Lochalsh	prefix	Anglicised from Caol
lan	Cumbric, Cornish, Pi	Church, churchyard, village with a church (parish)	Llandydd		Also Welsh. Further information at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llan_place_name_element
lang	OE	long	Great Langton	prefix
law	OE	From hlaw, a rounded hill	Taw Law, Lewes	stand-alone	Often a hill with a barrow or hillocks on its summit. Variation: law
lea	OE	From leah, a woodland clearing	Leigh, Barnsley	usually suffix	Variations include: ley, leigh
lin	Cumbric, Welsh	lake, water	Lindow	prefix	Also llyn
ling	Old English	heather	Lingmell		Variation: lyng
magna	Latin	Great	Chew Magna		Primarily a medieval affectation
mere	OE	lake, pool	Windermere, Grasmere
minster	OE	large church	Westminster
moss	OE	swamp, bog	Mossley
mynydd	Welsh	mountain	Mynydd Moel
nan	Cornish	valley	Nancledra		Variation: nans
ness	Old Norse, OE	headland, promontory	Inverness		Literally 'nose'
nor	OE	North	Norwich, Norfolk	prefix
pant	Welsh	hollow	pantmawr
parva	Latin	Little	Appleby Parva
pen	Cumbric, Welsh, Corn	head (headland or hill)	Penzance, Penrith	prefix	also Pedn in W. Cornwall
pit	Pictish	portion, share, farm	Pitlochry		homologous with Cornish peath
pol	Cornish, Cumbric	Pool	Polperro
pont	Latin, Cornish, Wels	bridge	Pontypridd
porth	Cornish, Welsh	harbour	Porthcawl, Porth Leven	prefix
shaw	OE	A wood or a fringe of woodland	Penshaw	Standlone or su
shep	OE	sheep	Shepton Mallet, Shipton	prefix	Variation: ship
stan	OE	stony	Stanmore, Stamford	prefix
stead	OE	place, enclosure	Hampstead	suffix
ster	Old Norse	farm	Lybster, Scrabster	suffix
stoke	OE	dependent farmstead, secondary settlement	Stoke on Trent	standalone	From OE stoc
stow	OE	holy place	Padstow, Chepstow
strath	Gaelic, Irish	Wide valley	Strathmore	prefix	derived from srath (but conflated with Brythonic "Ystrad")
street	OE, Latin	road (roman)	Chester-le-Street		derived from strata, L. 'paved road'
sud	OE	South	Sudbury	prefix
tarn	OE	a lake	x		In modern English, usually a glacial lake in a coombe.
thorp	ON	secondary settlement	Cleethorpes	suffix	Variations: thorpe. An outlier of an earlier settlement
thwaite	ON	A forest clearing with a dwelling, or parcel of land	Twatt	suffix	From ON thveit
tilly	Gaelic	hillock	Tillicoutry
toft	Old Norse	homestead	Lowestoft	suffix
ton	OE	Homestead, enclosure	Carterton	suffix	Linked to tun (Old English)
tre	Cornish, Cumbric	settlement	Trevose Head	prefix
treath	Cornish	beach	x
weald	Old English	high woodland	Wealdstone, Stowe-on-the-Wold		Variation: wold
whel	Cumbric	Mine or cave	Wheldrake
wick	Latin, OE	place settlement	Norwich, Alnwick	suffix	Variation: wich, wych, wyke. Related to Latin 'vicus'(place), cf. nl. 'wijk'
worth	Old English	Enclosure	Tamworth	usually suffix
ynys	Welsh	island	Ynys Mon (Anglesey)

Sources

Site	URL
Wikipedia on British Place Names	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_forms_in_British_place_names
Wikipedia on Toponymy	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toponymy

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