WELSH PLACE NAMES
A BRIEF GLOSSARY

Throughout this website – and indeed throughout Wales – you'll be confronted with place names which, unless you're a Welsh speaker, will mean nothing to you at all except yet another damn pronunciation hurdle to overcome. And it goes without saying you won't have the slightest clue about the meanings of Welsh places names either. A native Welsh speaker, however, will have a pretty good idea what many of his country's place names mean. Welsh, while it has certainly changed over time, is still recogisably the same language spoken a thousand years ago, a time from which many of our place names owe their origins. This can't be said of English places names, however, whose meanings are comprehensible now only to a student of Anglo-Saxon, a group of Germanic dialects spoken by the English before the Normans brought their French language to these shores in 1066, leaving the English language – and the English themselves – forever changed. Today we can read and understand the English written by William Shakespeare 400 years ago but, significantly, Shakespeare himself could not have understood the English written 400 years before his own time.

Welsh place names are usually quite descriptive, either of the local geography or notable features. Most also use the same construction as if you were denoting possession. So, Abertawe or 'the estuary of the Tawe', (as opposed to 'the Tawe's estuary'). Thus Brynmawr is 'big hill', Penrhyndeudraeth is 'the headland of the two beaches', Beddgelert is 'the grave of Celert' (more likely Saint Celert, rather than Gelert, Prince Llewelyn ap Iorwerth's faithful dog, as is popularly thought) and "llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch" is of course 'the church of St Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the church of Tysilio by the red cave', but no doubt you've guessed that already. It started off as plain old Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, but in the 1880s a Menai Bridge tailor decided to add a few more syllables as a bit of a publicity stunt to pull in the tourists. It worked, too.

For your assistance here are just the most common Welsh words used in place names. Beware though, as some of the words change a letter at the front of the word in certain grammatical circumstances.

aber = river mouth or estuary; confluence of two rivers afon = river allt = cliff, or wooded hill aran = high place bach = small, lesser bedw = birch bedd = grave betws = prayer-house brenin = king bron = slope of a hill bryn = hill bwlch = mountain pass, gap cadair = chair, stronghold cae = field caer = fortified settlement (like '-chester', '-burgh' or '-bury' in English) canol = centre cant = hundred capel = chapel carreg = stone cartref = home castell = castle cefn = ridge celyn = holly clun = meadow clwyd = gate, perch côch = red coed = forest, woodland cors = bog craig = rock croes = cross croeso = welcome cwm = bowl-shaped glacial valley cwrt = court cyntaf = first de = south derw = oak din/dinas = fort, city dros = over du = black dwfr, dwr = water dwyrain = east dyffryn = valley (broad, flat river valley) eglwys = church eryri = eagle's domain fawr = big fferm = farm ffordd = road fforest = forest gardd = garden gelli = grove glan = shore, bank glâs = blue (sometimes green) glo = coal glyn = valley (like the English 'vale') gogledd = north gorllewin = west gorsaf = station gwaun = meadow, field, moor gwlad = country

gwyn = white gwyrdd = green hên = old heol = road is, isa(f) = lower llan = clearing, early church llannerch = glade lle = place llech, llechen = slate, flat stone llwybr = path llwyd = grey llwyn = grove llyn = lake llys = palace, court man (also ma, fan, fa)= place, spot, quarter maen = stone maes = field marchnad = market mawr, fawr = great melin = mill melyn = yellow merthyr = burial place of a saint moel = bare or rounded mountain môr = sea morfa = coastal marsh mynydd = mountain nant = stream, brook neuadd = hall newydd = new nôs = night ogof = cave olaf = last onn = ash pant = hollow (valley) parc = park, field pen = head, top of a valley penrhyn = headland pentre(f) = village plâs = hall, mansion pont = bridge porth = port, gateway pwll = pool rhiw = hill, ascent rhos = moor, heath rhyd = ford sant = saint sarn = causeway sir = shire, county tâf = dark tan, dan = under tomen = mound traeth = beach traws = cross tref = town twr = tower ty, tai = house, houses ucha(f) = upper uwch = higher wrth = near, by y, yr, 'r = the ynys = island ystrad = valley (like the English 'vale')

Date this page last updated: October 1, 2010