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Components of Irish Placenames

If you spend time studying a fairly detailed map of Ireland, it becomes clear that there are sounds and parts of words that appear over and over again in many placenames. This is true of any culture (eg English -borough, -pool, -ham, -cester, -town; French -ville, German -burg). Ireland is no exception, except that its placenames can trace their ancestry to three language families: Gaelic, English and Viking.

If you have the name of an Irish placename, it is often possible to work out its origins. Many of them are made up of descriptions of the neighbourhood. For example, if there are two features, say lakes, close together, the larger one will often have -more in its name, and the smaller one -beg. Human structures also find their way into names: droichead is a bridge, and dun is a fortress. Many others are named after people, usually the lords who owned the lands on which they were built. Castledawson and Manorhamilton are examples.

A word of caution, however. A large number of Gaelic words sound similar, and in many cases the Anglicisation of Gaelic placenames has confused the spelling, making it look as if a placename means one thing when it actually means something completely different. Too many people fall into the trap of taking the English spelling, looking it up in an Irish dictionary and assuming they have the right meaning.

This is a list of some of the more common placename components in Ireland:

Ard	Signifies a high place in Gaelic languages. This ususally means a physically high place, but it can also mean a place of importance. For example: the Ards Peninsula (county Down), Ardstraw [A high, or important, rath] (county Tyrone), Ardfert (county Kerry). A few places seem to be an 'Ard', but are actually not. For example, Ardee (county Louth) is actually an abbreviation of the older name 'Atherdee', where 'Dee' is the name of the river on which it stands.
Bally, Ballyna, Ballina	Bally is an extremely common prefix to town names in Ireland, and is derived from the Gaelic phrase 'Baile na', meaning 'place of'. It is not quite right to translate it 'town of', as there were few, if any, towns in Ireland at the time these names were formed. For example, Ballyjamesduff [Place of James Duff] (county Cavan), Ballymoney (county Londonderry). The Irish name for the site of present-day Dublin was 'Baile Átha Cliath', which, if anglicised, would be spelt something like 'Ballycleeagh'. Note that 'Dublin' is actually a Viking word.
...beg	This means 'small' in Gaelic. Usually used at the end of a name, this often means that this feature is the smaller of a pair of adjacent features. A similar name ending in 'more' is often found nearby. For example, Killybegs (county Donegal), Lambeg (county Antrim). North of Lough Neagh, Ireland's largest lake, is a much smaller lake called Lough Beg.
..bridge	When found at the end of a name, this means that the town developed beside a bridge, or became famous as a bridging point. These town names are usually of English language origin. For example, Banbridge (county Down) which grew up around a bridge over the river Bann. Newbridge (county Kildare) grew up when a bridge over the Liffey was built at that point. (Newbridge is increasingly being called Droichead Nua, which is a Gaelicised version of the original English name.) This illustrates the importance of bridges to trade.
Carrick, Carrig	Carrick means 'rock' in Gaelic languages, and Carricks are abundant across Ireland. For example Carrickfergus [Rock of Fergus] (county Antrim), Carrickmacross [Rock of MacRoss] (county Monaghan), Carrick-on-Suir (county Tipperary).
Castle	A prefix whose origins are in the English language. Towns with this name once, and in a few cases still do, have a castle. For example Castlederg (county Tyrone), Castlebar (county Mayo), Castleisland (county Kerry).
Clon, Cloon	A Gaelic word meaning a dry place. This name is much more common in Connaught than elsewhere in Ireland. This is because Connaught in wetter, so a dry and well-drained site was more valuable and well regarded. For example, Clonmel (county Tipperary), Clonmacnois (county Offaly), Clonfert (county Galway).
Derry	This term evolved from the Gaelic name for a place of Oak trees [Doire], or sometimes a grove or clearing of the same. Oak trees are found in many places in Ireland, so there are many examples of the name Derry. The most famous place to have this name is Derry city (county Londonderry). Other examples include Derryaghy (county Antrim) [a former village which is now part of Belfast city], Edenderry (county Offaly).
Down, Dun, Don	These prefixes all evolved from the Gaelic word 'Dun', meaning a fortified place. As Ireland has always had wars, there are many examples of fortified places. Donegal [Fortress of the Foreigners] (county Donegal), Dungannon (county Tyrone), Portadown [Port of the fortress] (county Armagh), Dungarvan (county Waterford), Downpatrick [Fortress of Patrick] (county Down).
Droichead	A Gaelic word meaning a bridge. The prime example is Drogheda (county Meath), which is an evolved spelling derived from the Gaelic word. Also the town of Droichead Nua [New bridge] (county Kildare).
Drum, Drom	A Gaelic word meaning a ridge. Examples include Dromore [The greater ridge] (county Down & Tyrone), Drumquin [Quinn's ridge] (county Tyrone), Drum [the ridge] (county Monaghan)..
..ford	Names containing 'ford' could have either a Gaelic or Viking origin. If the place is by a narrow bay, it is likely to be Viking. The word evolved from the Viking 'fjord'. Examples include Waterford [Fjord of the father], Wexford [A very shallow fjord], Strangford [the strong fjord (ie, strong current)] (county Down). Alternatively, it could be a Gaelic/English word meaning a shallow crossing point in a river. For example, Longford.
Gal, Gael	A Gaelic word meaning 'strangers' or 'foreigners'. For example, Donegal [Fortess of the foreigners]. Note that Galway is not an example of this word. It translates to something like 'a port at some small islands'. The word 'Gaelic' itself means 'foreigners', because it originates from the language of pre-Celtic peoples who referred to the Celts as foreigners or 'Gaels'.
Glen	A Gaelic word meaning a valley between mountains. For example, Glenariff (county Antrim), Crossmaglen (county Armagh).
..hill	An English word used for any town on or near a hill. For example, Markethill (county Armagh), Richill (county Armagh).
Kil, Killy	A Gaelic word meaning a church. Famous examples include Kildare (Cill Dara) meaning 'the second church', Kilkenny. The Shankill area of Belfast is Gaelic for 'old church'.
Knock	A Gaelic word meaning a hill. There are many example of this, including Knock (county Mayo), Knock (Belfast, county Down) and Knockmore [the great hill], county Antrim. For a period several centuries ago, Carrickfergus (county Antrim) was known as Knockfergus.

Evolution of Placenames

As people of various linguistic background have lived in Ireland, so the names have evolved.

Gaelic names being Anglicised The most common evolution in Ireland occurred when English began to take over from the Gaelic languages as Ireland's dominant language. This usually resulted in the names staying the same, but their spellings changing. For example, Beal-fierste became Belfast, Tir Eoghain became Tyrone, Doire became Derry. There were very few towns in existance in Ireland before the Normans took control in the 1100s. Thus, many of the new town names were anglicised spellings of Gaelic region names, rather than the names of actual towns.

Viking names being Anglicised Many places in Ireland had been named by the Vikings, and these also evolved into English spellings. For example, Strangford [Strang Fjord] (county Down), Dublin [Dubh Linn] and Wexford [Weis Fjord]. Sometimes the Vikings and the Gaels had different names for the same thing, but only one ever survived. For example, the Gaelic name for the area of Dublin was Baile Atha Cliath, but this name was never used to refer to the town (although it has been appearing as such on roadsigns in the past few decades).

New English names appearing As new towns were founed after English had become the main language, they naturally had English names. For example, Newtownabbey (county Antrim), Waterside (county Londonderry), Celbridge (county Kildare) or Lucan (county Dublin).

English names being Gaelicised After the Republic of Ireland became independant, the government re-named some English name towns into Gaelic equivalents. For example, the county Kildare town of Newbridge, founded in 1816, was Gaelicised literally as Droichead Nua. Some other towns had their names totally changed. For example, Kingstown (county Dublin) became Dun Laoghaire, a re-Gaelicised version of the name (Dunleery) by which it had been known until 1821. Dunleery, in turn, had been an Anglicised version of a Gaelic name for the area. In fact, in the late Norman period many Norman (early English) names of towns were Gaelicised by the residents once the influence from across the Irish Sea waned.

Modern changes Names are still changing today. In 1837, the town of Newtownards (county Down) was spelt Newtown-Ardes. The county Londonderry town of Limavady was then known as Newtown-Limavady. There are likely to be further changes in the future. The town of Craigavon (county Armagh) was built (rather unsuccessfully) from scratch in the mid 20th century and named after a former Northern Ireland Prime Minister. The town of Shannon (county Clare) was born shortly after the opening of Shannon airport. It now has 7000 residents. People have still not settled on a single universally accepted name for towns such as Toome/Toomebridge, Londonderry/Derry and Carrickmore/Termon Rock.

For an interesting recent story of place name evolution in Ireland, check out this Irish Times news article on the town of Newtownsandes, county Kerry. You now have to pay to read this web site.