CLOG (Univ. of Glasgow)

Whalley, Neil

English

The problem of th in Northern Brittonic place-names

Coates, Richard

Unst

Patterson, William

Laura Wright, Sunnyside

Editors

The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 15 (2021), 205–206 
COUNTY ABBREVIATIONS FOR SCOTLAND, ENGLAND AND WALES (PRE-1975) 
ABD Aberdeenshire AGL Anglesey 
ANG Angus ARG Argyllshire 
AYR Ayrshire  BDF Bedfordshire 
BNF Banffshire BRE Brecknockshire 
BRK Berkshire  BTE Bute 
BUC Buckinghamshire BWK Berwickshire 
CAI Caithness CAM Cambridgeshire 
 CHE Cheshire CLA Clackmannanshire 
CMB Cumberland CNW Cornwall 
CRD Cardiganshire CRM Carmarthenshire 
CRN Caernarvonshire DEN Denbighshire 
DEV Devon DMF Dumfriesshire 
DNB Dunbartonshire DOR Dorsetshire 
DRB Derbyshire DRH Durham 
ELO East Lothian ESX Essex 
FIF Fife FLI Flintshire 
GLA Glamorgan GLO Gloucestershire 
 GTL Greater London HMP Hampshire 
HNT Huntingdonshire HRE Herefordshire 
HRT Hertfordshire INV Inverness-shire 
IOM Isle of Man IOW Isle of Wight 
KCB Kirkcudbrightshire KCD Kincardineshire 
KNR Kinross-shire  KNT Kent 
LAN Lanarkshire LEI Leicestershire 
LIN Lincolnshire LNC Lancashire 
MDX Middlesex MER Merionethshire 
MLO Midlothian MON Monmouthshire 
MOR Morayshire MTG Montgomeryshire 
NAI Nairnshire NFK Norfolk 
NTB Northumberland NTP Northamptonshire 
NTT Nottinghamshire ORK Orkney 
OXF Oxfordshire PEB Peeblesshire 
PEM Pembrokeshire PER Perthshire 
RAD Radnorshire RNF Renfrewshire 
ROS Ross and Cromarty ROX Roxburghshire 
RUT Rutland SFK Suffolk 
SHE Shetland SHR Shropshire 
SLK Selkirkshire SOM Somerset 
SSX Sussex STF Staffordshire 
STL Stirlingshire SUR Surrey 
SUT Sutherland WAR Warwickshire 
WIG Wigtownshire WLO West Lothian 
WLT Wiltshire WML Westmoreland 
WOR Worcestershire YOE Yorkshire (East Riding) 
YON Yorkshire (North Riding) YOW Yorkshire (West Riding) 
 


County Abbreviations

Taylor, Simon

‘Flemish’ settlement in Upper Clydesdale in the 12th and 13th centuries the evidence of place-names

Márkus, Gilbert

Replicating a sacred landscape: the cult of Saint Odrán in Scottish place-names

Scott, Maggie

The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 15 (2021), 191–194 
REVIEWS 
 
Jayne Carroll and David N. Parsons (eds.), Perceptions of Place: Twenty-First-
Century Interpretations of English Place-Name Studies, English Place-Name 
Society Supernumerary Volume for 2012 (Nottingham: English Place-Name 
Society, 2013), xxxvi + 474 pp. £35 hardback. ISBN 9780904889864 
 
This volume of collected papers considers the evolution of English place-name 
studies as a discipline area since the inception of the English Place-Name Survey 
(EPNS) in the early twentieth century. The book begins with an introduction by 
Jayne Carroll which sets the scene by contextualising the origins and 
development of the EPNS. She explains that the volume was in part written as a 
contemporary update of, or response to, subjects covered in the Introduction to 
the Survey of English Place-Names (1924), with a view to providing an 
‘overarching reassessment of the state of English place-name studies’ (p. xix). 
The close linguistic and geographical connections between England and 
Scotland ensure that this volume is also of interest to Scottish toponymists; of 
special relevance is the chapter by Thomas Owen Clancy, ‘Many strata: English 
and Scots place-names in Scotland’ (pp. 283–319). Other topics in English 
toponymics addressed in the volume include: English place-names in Wales and 
Ireland; Brittonic and Scandinavian names in England; place-names 
incorporating personal names, women, and terms for social status; the 
intersection between names and other disciplines such as linguistics, 
landscape, and archaeology.  
The first chapter, by Oliver Padel, examines ‘Brittonic place-names in 
England’ (pp. 1–41) against the backdrop of the key resources and scholarship 
which have most advanced their study. He reaffirms the continued importance 
of Kenneth Jackson’s Language and History in Early Britain (1953) and provides 
an extremely useful summary of and guide to the work produced more recently 
by various onomasts. The second chapter, by David N. Parsons, ‘Churls and 
athelings, kings and reeves: some reflections on place-names and early English 
society’ (pp. 43–72), revisits the chapter by historian Sir Frank Stenton on ‘The 
English elements’ in English toponymy in the EPNS Introduction (1924). Many 
of Stenton’s assertions have been re-evaluated in the intervening years, with 
onomasts such as Margaret Gelling notably accusing Stenton and his fellow 
onomastic historians of gathering evidence that appeared to justify their own 
theories, rather than letting the names tell their own stories (p. 53). The third 
Maggie Scott 192 
chapter is by Gillian Fellows-Jensen and discusses ‘The Scandinavian 
background to English place-names’ (pp. 75–101), from early Danish runic 
inscriptions and numismatic evidence to elements found in both English and 
Danish contexts. The fourth chapter, by Matthew Townend, focuses more 
specifically on ‘Scandinavian place-names in England’ (pp. 103–126), providing 
an extremely useful historiography of the subject.  
Chapter five, ‘Place-names and linguistics’, by Richard Coates (pp. 129–158), 
provides a contextual guide to the changes taking place in the discipline of 
linguistics in parallel with the evolution of twentieth-century English 
onomastics, and rehearses his theory of ‘properhood’. Chapter six, ‘English 
place-names and landscape terminology’, by Paul Cullen (pp. 161–179) takes as 
its starting point the general omission of commentary on landscape 
terminology in the EPNS Introduction (1924). Cullen details the work that has 
taken place since that time, noting particularly the ‘revolution’ in 
understanding brought about by Margaret Gelling’s research (p. 162). In chapter 
seven, ‘Settlement archaeology and place-names’ (pp. 181–207), Richard Jones 
reflects on the chapter by O. G. S. Crawford in the EPNS Introduction (1924), on 
‘Place-names and archaeology’, noting that Crawford’s work was written at a 
point when ‘little was known about the origins and development of early 
medieval rural settlements’ (p. 181). Once again, Margaret Gelling features 
prominently in the history of this aspect of English onomastics, Jones noting 
particularly that the publication of Signposts to the Past (1978) had a profound 
effect, catalysing a vital rapprochement between toponymists and 
archaeologists (p. 185), fostering and encouraging co-operation across the 
disciplines. 
In chapter eight, John Insley surveys the Celtic and Germanic strata of 
‘Personal names in place-names’ (pp. 209–249), taking as his starting point the 
commentary provided by Stenton in the EPNS Introduction (1924). Insley asserts 
the continued relevance of Stenton’s work, given his excellent interrogation of 
sources and his understanding of typology relating to anthroponyms (pp. 209–
10). Chapter nine, by Carole Hough, on ‘Women in place-names’ (pp. 251–281), 
considers both the legal and historical position of women in the Anglo-Saxon 
period and the linguistic contexts where women’s names appear in toponyms.  
Chapters ten, eleven and twelve form something of a separate grouping 
within the volume, as they each focus on nearby countries which have been 
influenced by aspects of English onomastic practices and related varieties of 
language. Chapter ten, by Thomas Owen Clancy (pp. 283–319), as mentioned 
Reviews 193 
above, may be of most direct relevance to readers of this journal. Clancy outlines 
the inception of the county surveys of Scotland, their most recent incarnation 
catalysed by the publication of The Place-Names of Fife, by Simon Taylor with 
Gilbert Márkus (2006–2012), in five volumes. Using different examples, from the 
south-west of Scotland, the chapter then explores some of the challenges 
presented by terminology and strata in relation to ‘English’ place-names in 
Scotland, including the uses of elements that have been used to coin place-
names on the chronological continua from Old English and Old Norse to Scots 
and Scottish English.  
In chapter eleven, Hywel Wyn Owen examines ‘English place-names in 
Wales’ (pp. 321–353), reflecting on work undertaken from the time of B. G. 
Charles’ Non-Celtic Place-Names in Wales (1938) to the present day. Noting the 
difficulties with language labels and perception, Owen takes the approach 
adopted by Charles and others of using ‘English’ to denote names that are 
‘simply not Welsh in origin’, with further discussion included to contextualise 
those which derive from Old Norse or other languages or varieties (p. 322). In 
his conclusion, he notes that toponyms ‘perceived to be not Welsh’ comprise 
roughly ten percent of place-names in Wales, but fewer of these are ‘genuinely 
English’ (p. 353). There has also been an important reassertion of Welsh names 
with the establishment of equal status for the English and Welsh languages in 
Wales (p. 353).  
Chapter twelve, by Kay Muhr, on ‘English place-names in Ireland’ (pp. 355–
397) provides a historical chronology of the evidence for and practices of 
naming places, from the time of the earliest records. Muhr charts the key 
periods where English (and Scandinavian) names have been introduced to 
Ireland, from the incursions of Anglo-Norman colonisers in the twelfth century. 
She also discusses the cartographic impact of Irish place-names that were 
recorded by non-Irish Gaelic-speaking administrators during the period of the 
‘Plantation’ of Ireland. Disturbingly, even some twenty-first century narratives 
about these names remain problematic, as Muhr notes:  
 
A range of manuscript maps of Ireland from the period has 
recently (2009) been put online by the United Kingdom National 
Archives. Unfortunately the introduction to these maps, by Rose 
Mitchell of the National Archives map collection, states that 
‘[p]lace-names are those used at the time and are generally old 
English ones rather than native Irish’. Most of the place-names 
Maggie Scott 194 
shown are in fact native Irish—the maps being earlier than the 
large post-Plantation increase in English-language names—but 
in English transliterations. (pp. 364–365)  
 
Most of the chapters in this volume take time to recognise and appreciate 
the range of scholarship that has contributed to the evolution of each topic 
since the 1920s, and the work of many onomasts is noted and acknowledged. 
However, it is striking how often Margaret Gelling’s name stands out as a beacon 
for onomastic progress in the understanding of English toponymy, particularly 
in relation to the interplay between toponymic evidence and related 
developments, concepts and theories in settlement chronologies, landscape 
history, and archaeology. Her contribution remains immeasurable, so it is fitting 
that a history of the development of ideas in English onomastics is in part a 
homage to her as a fearless and dedicated pioneer.  
Each of the chapters provides a vital introduction to the topic it covers, and 
by setting out to capture the history of ideas relating to each of these subjects, 
the editors have created a valuable resource which will help to guide an 
influence those onomasts who follow in their tracks for many years to come.  
 
MAGGIE SCOTT, University of Salford 


Jayne Carroll and David N. Parsons (eds), Perceptions of Place: Twenty-First-Century Interpretations of English Place-Name Studies

The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 15 (2021), 203–204 
 
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 
 
Richard Coates is professor emeritus of onomastics at the University of the West of 
England, Bristol. He is interested in names of all kinds (especially place-names and 
family names in Britain), onomastic theory, and anything in the intersection of 
linguistics, history and geography. 
 
Dr Jacob King is researcher at Ainmean Àite na h-Alba. Alongside his research for them, 
he has co-authored a number of publications for Scottish Natural Heritage (now 
NatureScot) in their ‘Gaelic in the Landscape’ series. He is author of two recent books: 
Scottish Gaelic Place-Names: The Collected Works of Charles M. Robertson, 1864–1927 
(Sleat, 2019) and The A to Z of Whisky Place-Names: Landscape, Language & Invention 
(Dunbeath, 2022). 
 
Gilbert Márkus works at the University of Glasgow in the AHRC-funded project, ‘Iona's 
Namescape: Place-Names and their dynamics in Iona and its environs’. He is author of 
many works of scholarship, including The Place-Names of Bute (Donington, 2012) and 
Conceiving a Nation. Scotland to AD 900 (Edinburgh, 2017) 
 
William (Bill) Patterson has been for some years Newsletter Editor for the Scottish 
Place-Name Society, and lives at East Linton, East Lothian.  He did not continue formal 
study of languages after school but maintained a strong amateur interest, while studying 
Archaeology & Anthropology, Land Economy and Town & Country Planning, and 
beyond through a career in local authority planning in Scotland and work for the 
Planning Inspectorate in England and similarly as an Inquiry Reporter back in Scotland. 
A special interest in place-names and the languages in which they were formed was 
probably inevitable in view of early exposure to many registers and dialects of speech, 
and the often plainly different character of the names of places, between where the 
family lived on Tyneside and the often visited homes of relatives in central Scotland, 
ranging between those who left school at 13, to work down the pits, and those with 
further education and a profession.   
 
Dr Maggie Scott teaches at the University of Salford, where she is Associate Dean 
Academic for Quality Assurance and Enhancement. She formerly worked as a historical 
lexicographer at the Historical Thesaurus of English at the University of Glasgow, the 
Oxford English Dictionary, and Scottish Language Dictionaries (SLD) in Edinburgh. She 
was editor of the journal Nomina from 2008 to 2013, and, beginning with this issue, is 
co-editor of this journal. 
 
Contributors 204 
Dr Simon Taylor has worked in the field of Scottish place-name studies since the early 
1990s. This has included working as part of various teams in the production of detailed 
surveys of Fife (5 volumes, 2006‒2012), Kinross-shire (1 volume, 2017), 
Clackmannanshire (1 volume, 2020) and Berwickshire Vol. 1 (forthcoming). He is 
employed part-time as Reader in Scottish Name Studies at the University of Glasgow. 
He was editor, then co-editor, of Journal of Scottish Name Studies from its inception in 
2007 until 2020. 
 
Dr Joanna Tucker is a Lecturer in History at the University of Glasgow. Her research has 
primarily focused on approaches to medieval charters and cartulary manuscripts, 
especially developing a new methodology for analysing scribes and their work in her 
recent book Reading and Shaping Medieval Cartularies: Multi-Scribe Manuscripts and 
their Patterns of Growth (2020). She has also been engaged in exploring Digital 
Humanities approaches to manuscripts and texts, including as co-director of 
http://www.modelsofauthority.ac.uk and as a Co-Investigator on Investigator on the 
research network A Digital Framework for the Medieval Gaelic World (2020–21). 
 
Neil Whalley is an independent researcher with a particular interest in the medieval 
history and languages of his native Cumbria. An early interest in toponymy led on to 
extensive research into Cumbric and the other Brittonic languages. He has previously 
written about Cumbric and published local history articles with the Cumberland and 
Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society.  
 


Notes on Contributors

Tucker, Joanna

Copying names: a scribe-centric view of the orthography of names in medieval cartularies

The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 15 (2021), 199–202 
 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SCOTTISH NAME STUDIES FOR 2020 
 
SIMON TAYLOR 
University of Glasgow 
 
The aim of this bibliography is to present, in a continuous list arranged 
alphabetically by author, all relevant articles, chapters in edited books, 
monographs, e-books and PhDs (most of which are now available on-line) 
which appeared in 2020. It is then followed by a Reviews section, and finally by 
a section on new digital resources.  
This bibliography does not cover the shorter articles, often illustrated, on a 
wide range of Scottish toponymic themes which appear in Scottish Place-Name 
News (SPNNews), the excellent twice-yearly newsletter of the Scottish Place-
Name Society edited by William Patterson. This publication also includes 
summaries of the papers given at the SPNS spring and autumn conferences. 
Note that all back issues, apart from the latest two, are available free on the SPNS 
website at spns.org.uk/scottish-place-name-news.  
For extensive bibliographies of name studies in Britain and Ireland and, less 
comprehensively, other parts of northern Europe, see the bibliographic sections 
in the relevant issues of Nomina, the journal of the Society for Name Studies in 
Britain and Ireland. The material in these Nomina bibliographies is set out 
thematically and includes relevant reviews which have appeared in the given 
year. 
I would be very pleased to hear from anyone who spots any omissions or 
errors in the following bibliography. I can be contacted via the JSNS website and 
at <simon.taylor@glasgow.ac.uk>. Also, I would be glad to receive notice of 
anything published in 2021 for inclusion in JSNS 16. 
In order to make it easier for the reader to find their way around, I have put 
in bold not only authors’ surnames but also some of the key places, persons or 
elements discussed in the individual entries. 
I would like to thank Carole Hough and Alan James for their help in 
compiling this bibliography. 
 
Ansell, Michael, 2020, ‘The Gaelic Hunting Tradition in Galloway’ Southlight 27, 
Spring/ Summer, 22–6. 
Bibliography 200 
Ansell, Michael, 2020, ‘Place-names of the Doon Valley: Part I’, The Doon Valley 
Gazette 12 (March/April), 8. 
Ansell, Michael, 2020, ‘Place-names of the Doon Valley: Part II’, The Doon Valley 
Gazette 13 (May/June), 8. 
Ansell, Michael, 2020, ‘Place-names of the Doon Valley: Part III’, The Doon 
Valley Gazette 14 (July/August), 8. 
Ansell, Michael, 2020, ‘Place-names of the Doon Valley: Part IV’, The Doon 
Valley Gazette 15 (September/October), 8. 
Ansell, Michael, 2020, ‘Place-names of the Doon Valley: Part V’, The Doon Valley 
Gazette 16 (November/December), 8.1 
Burns, Alison, 2020, ‘“We’re Going Through Changes”: Transition in 
Aberdeenshire Field-names’, The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 14, 121-39. 
Busset, Anouk and Evemalm-Graham, Sofia, 2020, ‘Places Of Belief in Medieval 
Glen Lyon and Beyond: Onomastic and Archaeological Perspectives’, The 
Journal of Scottish Name Studies 14, 59-120. 
Hough, Carole, 2020, ‘The Berwickshire Place-Name Resource’, Scottish 
Archives 25/26 (2019–2020), 56–72  
Hough, Carole, 2020, ‘The etymology of pot “deep hole, pit”’, Notes and Queries 
67.1, 27–31. 
Hough, Carole, 2020, ‘Place-name evidence for the etymology of Scots carse’, 
Notes and Queries 67.1, 31–2. 
Hough, Carole, 2020, ‘The migration of Old English to Scotland: place-name 
evidence for early Northumbrian settlement in Berwickshire’, in Language 
on the Move across Domains and Communities. Selected Papers from the 
12th Triennial Forum for Research on the Languages of Scotland and Ulster, 
Glasgow 2018, ed. Joanna Kopaczyk and Robert McColl Millar (Aberdeen: 
Forum for Research on the Languages of Scotland and Ulster), 231–250. 
King, Jacob, 2020, ‘Dreòlainn, Sorcha and Ioruaidh: The Origin and 
Development of Some Gaelic Exonyms’, The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 
14, 175. [A brief summary of a longer paper in progress] 
Künzler, Sarah, 2020, ‘Once Upon a Place-name: Diversifying Approaches to 
Onomastics in Scotland’, The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 14, 1–15. 
 
1 The Doon Valley Gazette is online: <https://doonvalleygazette.wordpress.com/>. 
Michael Ansell has also published articles in the New Cumnock News and the Glenkens 
Gazette over the course of 2020, not itemised here.  
Bibliography 201 
McNiven, Peter, 2020, ‘Baile and toun: Place-names as evidence of the 
consolidation and decline of Gaelic in medieval Menteith’, in Litreachas, 
Eachdraidh agus Cànan: Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 7, ed. Sheila M. Kidd, 
Thomas Owen Clancy and Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh (Glasgow: Roinn na 
Ceiltis & na Gàidhlig, Oilthigh Ghlaschu), 267–78. 
MacQuistan, Robert, 2020, Beginner's Guide to Creetown (Creetown). [Includes 
discussion of the origin of its street-names]. 
Mhairi, Leonie, 2020, ‘Littorally Speaking: Metaphor and Narratives of 
‘Weathering’ in Berwickshire’s Coastal Names’, The Journal of Scottish Name 
Studies 14, 140–74. 
Taylor, Simon, 2020, ‘Coldon/Cowden-place-names: trees, coos, fuel or 
assembly-sites?’, in Litreachas, Eachdraidh agus Cànan: Rannsachadh na 
Gàidhlig 7, ed. Sheila M. Kidd, Thomas Owen Clancy and Roibeard Ó 
Maolalaigh (Glasgow: Roinn na Ceiltis & na Gàidhlig, Oilthigh Ghlaschu), 
398–427. 
Taylor, Simon, 2020, ‘Bibliography of Scottish Name Studies for 2019’, The 
Journal of Scottish Name Studies 14, 176–80. 
Taylor, Simon, with Thomas Owen Clancy, Peter McNiven and Eila Williamson, 
2020, The Place-Names of Clackmannanshire (Donington: Shaun Tyas). 
Thornhill, Philip, 2020, ‘La Vindogara de Ptolémée’ Nouvelle Revue 
d'Onomastique 62, 5–24 [Alan James, summarises: ‘He compares the element 
-gara with the river-name Garonne, le Pic de Gar, and other place-names in 
and around Aquitaine, with a very detailed argument justifying the 
interpretation ‘rock’, and on that basis proposes that Vindogara was Ailsa 
Craig; Girvan, and even possibly Arran, may be related.’] 
Whyte, Alasdair C., 2020, ‘The Cailleach in Place-names and Place-Lore’, The 
Journal of Scottish Name Studies 14, 16–58. 
Williamson, Eila, 2020, ‘The Ordnance Survey Name Books: a “treasure-trove” 
for toponymists’, Scottish Archives 25/26 (2019–2020), 42–55. 
Wright, Laura, 2020, Sunnyside: A Sociolinguistic Study of British House Names 
(Oxford). [Reviewed by Carole Hough in History Today 70.11 2020, 101. There 
is a review article by William Patterson in this issue of JSNS (15, 2021).] 
 
DIGITAL NAME RESOURCES 
For some of those which have come online over the last two years, see 
‘Bibliography of Scottish Name Studies’ for 2019 (JSNS 13) and for 2020 (JSNS 14). 
For an inventory of websites dealing with the place-names of different localities 
Bibliography 202 
throughout Scotland, arranged by pre-1975 county, see the Scottish Place-Name 
Society website under ‘Useful Links’ 
< https://spns.org.uk/useful-links > 
 
I would like to draw readers attention to the excellent and wide-ranging blog 
postings published on two websites during 2020 and before: 
 
The Place-Names of the Galloway Glens:  
< https://kcb-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk/ > blogs under ‘Project News’ 
 
Clancy, Thomas Owen: 
‘Surveying the place-names of the Galloway Glens’ (26 November, 2018) 
‘Gatherings about Moss’ (10 August, 2020) 
Márkus, Gilbert: 
‘Place-names and red kites’ (8 November, 2018) 
‘Crosses and a crossing’ (6 June, 2019) 
‘Lowes’ (6 June, 2019) 
‘One bog, three names – how good fences make good neighbours’ (6 June, 
2019) 
‘Gaelic poll: the fluidity of meaning’ (5 November, 2019) 
‘Some earrann-names in Balmaclellan’ (5 November, 2019) 
‘Microtoponyms – little place-names with a big role’ (14 November, 2019) 
‘Unpacking Balmaghie’ (1 December, 2019) 
‘Why do earrann-names form clusters’ (6 February, 2020) 
‘Echoes of an early territory’ (25 June, 2020) 
‘Place-names and power’ (6 December, 2020) 
 
Another project, begun in 2020, is ‘Iona’s Namescape: place-names and their 
dynamics in Iona and its environs’. <https://iona-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk/  > 
Blogs published during 2020 (under ‘Blog’): 
 
Clancy, Thomas Owen: 
‘The trouble with Cobhain Cuildich’ (7 December, 2020) 
Márkus, Gilbert: 
‘Latin and Gaelic in the early monastery: detecting a dialect shift?’ (18 
December, 2020’ 


Bibliography of Scottish Name Studies for 2020

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