The Britain that You don’t Know

As products of social interactions between people， place names always represent parts of history and culture of the geographical entities for they are created by using specific national languages. Therefore， we should look beyond the names themselves and dig for the information behind them.

The first kind of place names is with the vocabulary components of the Celts. From about 500 BC， the Celts invaded European continent and then occupied Britain. They spoke Celtic language， which was the only early language can be found in British with the historical records. Today， only a number of place names and river names still reserve parts of Celtic vocabulary components. For instance， “the Thames”， “the Avon”， “the Derwent” are all rivers named by Celts. In “Duncombe”， “Winchcombe” and “Cumberland” such place names， the Celtic “cumb” （=deep valley） is contained. And “Torcross”， “Torquay” also include the Celtic vocabulary “torr” （=high rock or peak）. The names of famous British cities “Dover”， “York” originate from Celtic as well. Thanks to the reservations of these names， people can retrace and study the Sealy culture of Britain.

The second kind of place names relates to the invasion of Romans. From 43 AD， the Roman emperor Claudius led his troops to conquer England gradually. And then Britain had been occupied by the Romans for 400 years， during which the culture and customs of Roman were taken into Britain. Naturally， the place names were influenced by Latin. For example， many British towns’ names end with a word having the similar meaning with “castle”， such as “Doncaster”， “Winchester”， “Gloucester”， “Leicester” and so on. These towns were built on the basis of old castles or ruins of cables. The word “castrum” in Latin is as “castle” in English. The town names ending with “-minster” offer us another trace of the fact that Latin were greatly affected by Anglo-Saxons. “-minster” means “monastery”. A good case in point is “Westerminster”， which refers to “the Western monastery”.

The origin of the third kind of place names is in connection with Danish invasions. In 9th century， raiders from Scandinavia， especially Danes， threatened Britain’s shores. Before that， Angles， Saxons and Jutes had invaded Britain and their various dialects came together as a new kind of language — Anglo-Saxon， that is Old English. However， Danish invasion lasting around 300 years influenced old English greatly. We can easily recognize it just from a few particular place names. When we see a town name ending with “-by”， we can assert that the place has ever been occupied by Danes for “-by” means “farm， town， village” in Danish. Besides， there are many place names containing Norse word “thorp”（village）， such as “Althorp” and “Bishopsthorpe”. From a mass of place names with Norse components in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire， we can clearly identify that Danish invasions on those regions were fairly thorough. They changed more British place names by their native language than Romans and French did when they conquered Britain.

The fourth kind of place names is in relation to the conquest of Normans， who were from northern French. In 1066， they crossed the English Channel and defeated English army under William of Normandy. This marked the last time that an army from outside the British Isles succeeds in invading. It not only accelerated the process of the feudalization of British society， but also pushed Old English to Middle English. However， it’s really difficult for invaders to imitate the pronunciations of some place names because of their difficulties in pronunciation and disdains for learning the language of conquered savage people. Just take an example， there was an important town called Dunbolm， but Normans exhausted their abilities to call it “Durham”. In the meantime， the place names created by Normans in French are also difficult for the conquered Saxons in pronunciation. Therefore， “Beaulieu” became “Benley”， and “Rievaulx” became something sounded like “Rivers”. Some of Norman feudal lords even added their names or titles to town names. Now there is a place called “Abbot’s Langly”， and another place called “King’s Langly”. Among various British place names， there are many places like this， such as “Bishop’s stort-ford”， “Ashby-de-la-zouch” and “Buchland Mona-chorum”.

To conclude， the origin and change of the place names are closely related with the development of the British society and history. If we do further research on the behind meanings of the place names， we will know more about British culture and society.