"WHAT'S IN A NAME?"
St Peter's School's research on Irish Placenames
Nearly all of the names of places in Ireland are Irish. They were given to the places long ago when Irish was the language of the people who lived here in Ireland. The only difference is that they are spelt in English. What we mean is that when the English conquered Ireland hundreds of years ago, the people who came wrote down all the names of the places and people. Because they probably couldn't write or maybe couldn't even speak the Irish language, they they probably just wrote the way the words sounded to them. That is why many of the placenames are still written in English but they mean something in Irish.
We found out that a lot of places got their names from what they looked like. Maybe they had a big hill, or river or sometimes just a field or trees. Then there are other places which got their name because something happened there, like a big war or a monastery was built there or the place looks like an animal or has a colour.
We have gone through the map of Ireland and made a list of the places we saw. We tried to make a list of all the places which had the same beginnings, middles or ends because our teacher, Mr. Logue told us that this was because they must have all had something the same meaning in them all. Here is a list of the parts of names and what their meanings are. We got the meanings from our teacher, because we didn't know what they meant too. We are also going to list some places which are still called these names today. There are far too many placenames to do so we cannot write all of them down. Here are some which we think are good. We hope you think they are interesting too.
| Word Part | Meaning | Name of Place in Ireland |
|---|---|---|
| agha, augh | a field or a plain | Aghaboe (Cow
Field) Aughnacloy (Field of the Stone) |
| ard, ards | a hill or height | Ardmore (Big
Hill) Newtownards (New Town on a Height) |
| ath, a, aha | a river crossing/ford | Athboy (Yellow Ford) |
| bal, bally | town, village, home | Baldoyle (Town of the Dark Foreigners) Ballykelly (Kelly's Town) Ballymena (Middle Town) Ballysadare (Town of the Waterfall of the Oak) Ballynure (Town of the Yew Tree) Ballylumford (Town of the Long Fiord) |
| bane, baun, ban, bawn | white, fair coloured | Strabane (White River Meadow) Mullaghban (White Hilltop) Bawnboy (Yellow Field) |
| beg | small or little | Derrybeg (Little Oak Grove) Killybegs (Little Churches) Drombeg (Little Ridge) Owenbeg (Little River) |
| carn | a stone mound or a monument | Carndonagh (Hill of the Church) Carnlough (Monument of the Lake) |
| carrick, carrig | a rock | Carrigart (Art's Rock) Carrigaphooca (Rock of the Hobgoblin) Carrickduff (Black Rock) |
| derry, der, dare | oak tree, oak grove | Derry (The Oak Grove) Ballysadare (Town of the Waterfall of the Oak) |
| dun, down, don | a fort | Dunamanagh (Fort of the Monks) Portadown (Landing Place at the Fort) |
| gal | a stranger, foreigner | Donegal (Fort of the Foreigners) Galbally (Townland of the Foreigners) |
| inish, innis | an island | Inishowen (Owen's Island) Innisfree (Island of the Heather) - as in W.B. Yeats' poem 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' |
| glen, glan | a glen or little valley | Glendalough (Glen of the Two Lakes) Glenanair (Glen of the Slaughter) Glencar (Valley of the Standing Stone) Glanleam (Glen of the Leap/Jump) |
| gort, gurt | a ploughed field | Gortahork (Ploughed Corn Field) Gortalassa (Field of the Ring Fort) |
| iska, isky | water, spring | Balliniska (Townland of the Spring) Iskaheen (Pleasant Waters) |
| kil, keel, killy | a church | Kilbarry (Church of St. Finbarr) Killybegs (Little Churches) Glencolmkill (The Glen of the Dove of the Church) - the 'Dove of the Church' was the name given to St. Columba, the Patron saint of Derry |
| knock, crock | a hill, mountain | Knock (The Hill) - this is the place in County Mayo, Ireland, where the Virgin Mary appeared to some people from the village in August 1879 Knockunaffrin (The Hill of the Mass) Knockcroghery (Hill of the Hangman) Crockmore (Big Hill) |
| lough, loch | a lake | Loughanure (Glen of the Yew Tree) Lough Conn (Lake of the Hound) |
| more, mor | big | Ardmore (Big Hill) Dunmore (Big Fort) |
| owen | a river or stream | Owenbeg (Little River) Coshowen (Beside the River) |
| rath | a ring fort | Rathmore (Big Ring Fort) Rathkeele (Narrow Ring Fort) |
| slieve, slem | mountain | Slievesnaght (Mountain of the Snow) Slemish (Mountain of Mish - a woman) This is also the mountain where St. Patrick is said to have been kept as a slave boy before he converted Ireland to Christianity |
| tir, tyr | people of, or land of | Tyrone (Land of Owen) |
