NAMES 



379 



The way in which the dominion of Rome was 

 established by the foundation of colonies and 

 privileged cities can be traced over the greater part 

 of Europe. The name of Cologne is a corruption 

 of Colonia Agrippina, Lincoln of Lindum Colonia ; 

 Lodi was Laus Pompeii, Pampehma was Pompelo 

 or Pompeiopolis. Friuli and Frejus are variant 

 corruptions of Forum Julii, Forli of Forum 

 Livii, Jiilich of Juliacum, Lillebonne of Juliabona, 

 Beja of Pax Julia, Badajoz was Pax Augusta, 

 Merida was Augusta Eraerita, Saragossa was 

 Ciesarea Augusta. Augsburg, Aosta, Aoust, Angst, 

 and Auch are corruptions of Augusta, Autun of 

 Augustodunum. Klagenfurt was Claudii Forum, 

 Fiora was Forum Aurelii, and Orleans was Aurelia. 

 We find the name of Valentinian in Valenciennes, 

 of Gratian in Grenoble, of Hadrian in Adrianople, 

 of Constantine in Constantinople ; while Constance 

 and Coutances bear the name of Constantius. Of 

 the same class are Alexandria, Scanderoon, Antioch, 

 and Seleucia, which recall the dominion of Alex- 

 ander and his successors. 



The Roman cities in Britain are commonly desig- 

 nated by dialectic variations of the Anglo-Saxon 

 eeaster (a word derived from the Latin castra), 

 which is usually appended to a fragment of the 

 primitive Celtic name. Thus, in the Saxon region 

 we have such names as Winchester, Chichester, 

 Dorchester, Rochester, and Colchester. In Mercia 

 we have Gloucester, Worcester, Leicester, Man- 

 chester, and Chester. In the Anglian district we 

 find Tadcaster, Lancaster, Doncaster, and on the 

 Welsh or Cornish frontier Wroxeter and Exeter. 

 But many of our larger towns grew up in post- 

 Roman times near the great fords over rivers; such 

 are Oxford, Hereford, Hertford, Bedford, Chelms- 

 ford, Guildford, Stafford, Stratford. That only the 

 smaller streams were bridged is shown by the 

 names of Cambridge, Tunbridge, Weybridge, and 

 Uxbridge. 



The nomenclature of Teutonic lands Germany, 

 England, and north-eastern France fully bears 

 out the description given by Tacitus of the Ger- 

 mans, 'Nulla.1 Germanorum populis urbes hahitari, 

 satis notiim est ; ne pati niiidem inter se jiinctas 

 sedes. Colunt discreti ac diversi, ut fons, ut cam- 

 pus, ut nemos placuit.' Hence the local names in 

 England and Germany differ essentially from those 

 of Italy, France, Spain, Wales, and Ireland in one 

 important respect. The first element is frequently 

 the name of the Teutonic settler who selected his 

 home in field or forest. Round these isolated 

 dwellings villages grew up, and became known as 

 the ton, ham, thorpe, or by of the first settler and 

 hi family. Thus, to take a few village-names from 

 a small district in Yorkshire, we find that a man 

 named Asketel settled at Asselby and another at 

 Haisthorpe, Anlaf at Anlabv, Bardolf at Barlby, 

 Dugald at Duggleby, Fnlcliar at Foggathorpe, 

 Gamal at Ganton, Lanibi at Langthorpe, Mioll at 

 Millington, Kether at Raisthorpe, Hrolfr at Rowls- 

 toii, Thorgrimr at Thorntliorpe. In like manner the 

 majority of German village names are derived from 

 the names of the earliest Teutonic settlers. Thus, 

 we find Hrudulf at Rudelsheim, Rudisleben, and 

 KuileUliaiiaen ; Wolfbert at Wolfertshausen : Diet- 

 rich at Dietersheim, Dietershausen, and Dieters- 

 dorf ; Ratbold at Rappoltsweiler ; and Ratbert at 

 Rappertsweiler. 



( >n the other hand, in Celtic lands Cornwall, 

 Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and parts of France a 

 more religious spirit has caused the villages more 

 commonly to bear the name of some local hermit or 

 evangelist, or of the saint to whom the church is 

 dedicated. In Teutonic lands such names are rare, 

 and, as in the case of St Albans or St Edmunds- 

 bury, St Gallen or Glarus (St Hilarius), they 

 commonly refer to a town which has grown up 



under the shadow of some great monastery. In 

 many parts of France such names are more common, 

 as in the case of St Omer, St Denis, St Cloud, St 

 Malo, St Privat, St Didier, St Cyr, and about 

 6000 other names. In Ireland some 2700 names 

 begin with Kil, which denoted a 'church,' or a 

 monastic 'cell.' Thus Kilkiaran is the church or 

 cell of St Ciarran, Kilkenny of St Cannech, Kil- 

 bride of St Brigid, Kilskeer of St Scire, Killaloe 

 of St Lna or Dalua, and Kilkee of St Caeide. In 

 the Celtic part of Scotland we have a fair number 

 of such names, though not so many as in the Isle of 

 Saints; such, for instance, are Kilmarnock, Kiltinan, 

 Kilpatrick, and Kilsyth. Kirk( 'church' ) is common 

 in the Teutonic part of Scotland, as in Kirkcud- 

 bright, Kirkcaldy, and Kirkpatrick. This prefix is 

 also found in the north of England, where we have 

 34 villages called Kirby or Kirkby ( 'church village' ). 

 In the south of England rhitrch occasionally is 

 found as a suffix, as in Bonchurch and Whitcliurcb ; 

 while in Axminster, Kidderminster, Leominster, 

 and Westminster the suffix denotes a monastic 

 foundation. In Wales the ecclesiastical prefix is 

 usually Llan, meaning an ' enclosure.' Thus, Llan- 

 dudno is the church of St Tudno, Llanberis of St 

 Peris, Llangollen of St Collen, Llanfair of St 

 Mary, Llanbadern of St Padern, Llanilltyd of 

 St Illtyd. All the Welsh sees, Llamlaft', St Davids, 

 St Asaph, and Bangor ('the white choir'), are 

 named from churches, whereas every English see, 

 except the modem see of St Albans, bears a name 

 of secular origin. A very large number of Indian 

 towns take their names from the temple of some 

 deity ; Bombay, for instance, is a corruption of 

 Mambai, a goddess to whom an ancient temple 

 was dedicated, and Calicut is Kali's fortHM. 



Names derived from conspicuous trees or the 

 nature of the vegetation are everywhere common. 

 From the oak we have such English names as 

 Acton, Aclain, and Auckland ; such Celtic names 

 as Deny, Kildare, and Darrock ; while there are 

 about 200 Slavonic places called Dubrau. Those 

 in England named from the ash, such as Ashby and 

 Ashton, amount to nearly the same number ; but 

 there are only 27, such as Appleby and Appleton, 

 named from the apple, and 11 from the hircli. The 

 Slavonic name of the birch (brasa) gives its name 

 to 40 places; the lime (lipa), to upwards of 200, 

 including Leipzig, while in England we have Lynd- 

 liurst, Linton, and a few more. We obtain Alder- 

 shot and Olney from the alder ; Thorney from the 

 thorn ; Bromley from the broom ; Rusholme from 

 the rush ; and Farnhain and Famborough from the 

 fern. Selinus, one of the greatest of the Greek 

 cities in Sicily, took its name from the wild parsley. 

 There are also names from animals ; from the fox, 

 for instance, we have Lochmaddy, Todmorden, and 

 Foxholes. Many towns take their names from the 

 rivers on which they stand. In England we have 

 Exeter on the Exe," Axminster on the Axe, Oke- 

 hampton on the Oke, Taunton on the Tone, Maid- 

 stone on the Medway, Plymouth, Dartmouth, and 

 Falmouth on the Plym, Dart, and Fal ; while 

 Hull, properly Kingston-upon-Hull, has usurped 

 the name of the river Hull. In Asiatic Russia 

 Tomsk, Tobolsk, and most of the chief towns are 

 thus named. 



The commonest suffixes in English place-names, 

 denoting habitation or enclosure, arc -ton, -ham, 

 worth, -stou; and -bury in the south, and -by, 

 thorpe, -toft, -garth, and -thivaite in the north. 

 The patronymic suffix -ing, either alone, as in 

 Woking and Barking, or combined with -ton or 

 ham, as in Buckingham and Birmingham, Isling- 

 ton and Kensington, denotes the settlement of a 

 family or clan. The more usual rmffixes not denoting 

 habitation are -ey, -ley, -field, -ford, and -bridge. 

 One of the commonest English village-names is 



