Where do British town names come from?

Roman contributions to British place names come mainly through their Latinisation of pre-Roman names. A Celtic name that had been rendered by earlier Greek visitors as Pretanniké became the Roman Britannia; an ancient name of obscure meaning became Londinium.

How are city names made?

The most common methods of naming places include the use of names of prominent people in the region or countries. Some places are also named after a phenomenal occurrence or activity.

Why do English towns end in Chester?

The English place-name Chester, and the suffixes -chester, -caster and -cester (old -ceaster), are commonly indications that the place is the site of a Roman castrum, meaning a military camp or fort (cf. The pronunciation of names ending in -chester or -caster is regular.

What does Chester mean in Manchester?

The suffix -chester comes from the Latin castrum meaning encampment. One is that in both cases the word to which the suffix is attached is a Celtic one. The first element of Manchester is probably related to the Celtic *mamm meaning a ‘breast-like hill’.

What does Coty name mean?

riverbank
a. The meaning of Coty is ‘riverbank’. This is a gender-neutral name of French origin. It also has English roots, where Coty means ‘helpful’.

Why is Cester pronounced STER?

The cester/chester ending can be traced back to the Roman occupation: castra is Latin for camp, so these placenames indicate Roman army encampments (or more likely permanent garrisons, given the names’ persistence).

What is British Shire?

shire, in Great Britain, a county. The Anglo-Saxon shire (Old English scir) was an administrative division next above the hundred and seems to have existed in the south in the time of Alfred the Great (871–899) and to have been fully established by the reign of Edgar (959–975).

What does Cote mean in English place names?

COTT OR COTE. Place names ending in cott or cote are usually derived from the Saxon word for house ‘cott’. DEAN OR DENE. This is usually a corruption of denu, which meant a little valley.

How did England’s cities get their names?

England contains 51 cities, many of which have fascinating etymologies. Here they are, alphabetically, with the leading theories on how they got their names. Bath… named after the baths.

Why do so many New England towns have French names?

Many of the earliest towns settled by English Puritans take their names from their homes England, especially East Anglia. Since the French tried to claim New England, too, especially near the Canadian border, they managed to give some settlements French names — along with a state and an enormous lake.

Where do England’s rivers get their names?

So do about two-thirds of England’s rivers: Avon, Derwent, Severn, Tees, Trent, Tyne – and Itchen, which later lent its name to the town Bishop’s Itchington. (Some of these names may even have come from the people who were here before the Celts).

What is the origin of the name London?

The name London was first definitively used by the Romans in the settlement of Londinium, but it was probably based on an existing name. Plowonida, meaning fast-flowing river in Celtic, is one possibility. We discuss London’s origins in more detail in this article.