List of Latin place names in the British Isles

List of Latin place names in the British Isles

This list includes places in the British Isles (such as Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man), some of which were part of the Roman Empire, or were later given Latin place names in historical references.

Background

Until the Modern Era, Latin was the common language for scholarship and mapmaking. During the 19th and 20th centuries, German scholars in particular have made significant contributions to the study of historical place names, or "Ortsnamenkunde". These studies have, in turn, contributed to the study of genealogy. For genealogists and historians of pre-Modern Europe, knowing alternate names of places is vital to extracting information from both public and private records. Even specialists in this field point out, however, that the information can be easily taken out of context, since there is a great deal of repetition of place names throughout Europe; reliance purely on apparent connections should therefore be tempered with valid historical methodology.

Caveats and notes

Latin place names are not always exclusive to one place — for example, there were several Roman cities whose names began with "Colonia" and then a more descriptive term. During the Middle Ages, these were often shortened to just "Colonia". One of these, "Colonia Agrippinensis", retains the name today in the form of Cologne.

Early sources for Roman names show numerous variants and spellings of the Latin names.

The modern canonical name is listed first. Sources are listed chronologically. In general, only the earliest source is shown for each name, although many of the names are recorded in more than one of the sources. Where the source differs in spelling, or has other alternatives, these are listed following the source. As an aid to searching, variants are spelled completely, and listed in most likely chronology.

Superscripts indicate:
# Latinized form of the Greek-derived name.
# Latinized form of the Asian-derived name via Greek.
# Altered Latinized form of the Greek-derived name.

'?' probably historical mistake

Cities and towns in Ireland

Island names

Region or country names

References

In order of likely publication:

*TA: Tacitus (Gaius Cornelius Tacitus), "Agricola"

*PNH: Pliny (Gaius Plinius Secundus), "Naturalis Historia"; book "PNH" chapter (that is, "37PNH81" instead of the usual "N.H.xxxvii.81").

*PG: Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus), "Geographia"; book "PG" chapter (that is, "2PG3" instead of the usual "II.3"). Ptolemy wrote in Greek, so names are transliterated back into Latin to reveal the original form.

*AI: Antonine Itinerary

*ND: "Notitia Dignitatum"

*RC: Ravenna Cosmography, "Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia"

*BSH: Buchanan, George (1506–1582): "Rerum Scoticarum Historia" (1582)

*HLU: Hofmann, Johann Jacob (1635–1706): "Lexicon Universale"

*HD1851: Rejected by modern historians, but seen in this document from 1851 - [http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/PAGEVIEWER.ASP?fn=00006QL8.TIF&dn=LUL2002tif&zoom=in] and [http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/PAGEVIEWER.ASP?fn=00006ql9.tif&dn=LUL2002tif&zoom=in] (bottom of one page to top of next)

*GOL: The standard reference to Latin placenames, with their modern equivalents, is Dr. J. G. Th. Graesse, "Orbis Latinus : Lexikon lateinischer geographischer Namen des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit" (1909), an exhaustive work of meticulous German scholarship that is available on-line. To use it, one must understand German names of countries, as they were in 1909. The original was re-edited and expanded in a multi-volume edition in 1972.

*A.L.F. Rivet and Colin Smith, "The place-names of Roman Britain", London, 1979 (reprinted by Book Club Associates, 1981).

See also

* Chemical elements named after places (several element names employ Latin place names)
* List of Roman place names in Britain

External links

* [http://www.roman-britain.org/geography/itinerary.htm Antonine Itinerary]
* [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/scothist/ Buchanan, Rerum Scoticarum Historia]
* [http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/Graesse/contents.html Graesse, Orbis Latinus]
* [http://www.historicaldirectories.org/ Historical Directories, England and Wales, from 1750 to 1919]
* [http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/hofmann.html Hofmann: Lexicon Universale]
* [http://www.ipa.net/~magreyn4/recint2.htm Latin Names of Places in Great Britain and Ireland]
* [http://www.roman-britain.org/notitia.htm Notitia Dignitatum: The British Section]
* [http://www.p.lodz.pl/I35/personal/jw37/EUROPE/europe.html Place Names of Europe]
* [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/home.html Pliny the Elder: the Natural History]
* [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/home.html Ptolemy: the Geography]
* [http://www.romanmap.com/ Roman Map of Britain]
* [http://members.aol.com/antoninus1/piety/agricola.htm Tacitus: Agricola (English)]
* [http://www.gmu.edu/departments/fld/CLASSICS/tac.agri.html Tacitus: Agricola (Latin)]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • List of Roman place names in Britain — A partial list of Roman place names in Great Britain.This list includes only names documented from Roman times. For a more complete list including later Latin names, see List of Latin place names in the British Isles.The early sources for Roman… …   Wikipedia

  • Terminology of the British Isles — Main article: British Isles   The British Isles …   Wikipedia

  • British Isles — This article is about the archipelago in north western Europe. For the group of territories with constitutional links to the United Kingdom, see British Islands. British Isles English: British Isles Irish: Éire agus an Bhreatain Mhór[1] or… …   Wikipedia

  • British toponymy — is the study of British place names, their origins and trends in naming. Toponymy is distinct from the study of etymology, which is concerned mainly with the origin of the words themselves.British toponymy is rich, complex and diverse. Modern… …   Wikipedia

  • Place name origins — The study of place names is called toponymy and is distinct from (but often confused with) etymology, the study of the origins of words. Rather than describing toponymy (as an academic discipline) itself, this article examines the origins of… …   Wikipedia

  • List of Scottish monarchs — The Royal Coat of Arms of Scotland, as used before 1603 The monarch of Scotland was the head of state of the Kingdom of Scotland. According to tradition, the first King of Scots was Kenneth MacAlpin (Cináed mac Ailpín), who founded the state in… …   Wikipedia

  • The Carmelite Order —     The Carmelite Order     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► The Carmelite Order     One of the mendicant orders.     Origin     The date of the foundation of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been under discussion from the fourteenth century to …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Aber and Inver as place-name elements — Aber and Inver are common elements in place names of Celtic origin. Both mean confluence of waters or river mouth . Their distribution reflects the geographical influence of the Brythonic and Goidelic language groups respectively. Aber Aber goes… …   Wikipedia

  • Latin Literature in Christianity (Sixth To Twentieth Century) —     Latin Literature in Christianity (Sixth to Twentieth Century)     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► Latin Literature in Christianity (Sixth to Twentieth Century)     During the Middle Ages the so called church Latin was to a great extent the language …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • The Benedictine Order —     The Benedictine Order     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► The Benedictine Order     The Benedictine Order comprises monks living under the Rule of St. Benedict, and commonly known as black monks . The order will be considered in this article under… …   Catholic encyclopedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”