CLOG (Univ. of Glasgow)

Taylor, Simon

The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 12, 2018, 97–100
Bibliography of Scottish Name Studies for 2017
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, CDs, e-books and PhDs (most of which are now available on-line) 
which appeared in 2017. 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. This publication also includes summaries of the papers given at 
the SPNS spring and autumn conferences.
For more 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 on simon.taylor@glasgow.ac.uk. Also, I would be glad to receive notice of 
anything published in 2018 for inclusion in JSNS 13.
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 Alan James, Carole Hough and others who have helped 
me in compiling this bibliography.
Bragar & Arnol Community Trust/Urras Coimhearsnachd Bhràdhagair agus 
Àrnoil, 2017, Dealbh-Dùthcha: Ainmean-Àite Bhràdhagair agus Àrnoil | A map 
of Bragar and Arnol place-names (Grinneabhat).
Broderick, George, 2017, ‘Some island names in the former “Kingdom of the 
Isles” revisited’, Beiträge zur Namenforschung 52.2, 133–61.
Clancy, Thomas Owen, 2017, ‘The Etymologies of Pluscarden and Stirling’, The 
Journal of Scottish Name Studies 11, 1–20.
Simon Taylor Bibliography of Scottish Name Studies for 201798 99
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 12 2018, 97–100 The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 12, 2018, 97–100
Maclean, Coinneach, 2017, ‘Leaps of the Imagination: the leap tradition in 
Scotland’, The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 11, 37–54; available as a free 
download at <http://www.clanntuirc.co.uk/JSNS/V11/Maclean%20final.pdf>
Macniven, Alan, 2017, ‘What’s in a Name? The Historical Significance of Norse 
Naming Strategies in the Isle of Islay’, in Cooijmans 2017, 22–50.
McNiven, Peter, 2017, Place-names of the Cateran Trail. Stage One: Blair gowrie 
to Kirkmichael, an e-publication available as a free download at http://
commonculture. org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CWWPlaceName_
ResearchBlairgowrietoKirkmichael_LR.pdf [detailed toponymic survey of all 
the place-names on the Trail]. 
McNiven, Peter, 2017, Place-names of the Cateran Trail. Stage Two: Kirkmichael to 
Spittal of Glenshee, an e-publication available as a free download on <http://
commonculture.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CWWPlaceName_
ResearchKirkmichaeltoSpittalofGlensheeStage2_LR.pdf>[detailed toponymic 
survey of all the place-names on the Trail]. 
McNiven, Peter, 2017, Place-names of the Cateran Trail. Stage Three: Spittal 
of Glenshee to Kirkton of Glen Isla, an e-publication available as a free 
download on <http://commonculture.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/
CWWPlaceNameResearchSpittalofGlensheetoKirktonofGlenIslaStage3_
LR.pdf> [detailed toponymic survey of all the place-names on the Trail]. 
McNiven, Peter, 2017, Place-names of the Cateran Trail. Stage Four: Kirkton of 
Glen Isla to Alyth, an e-publication available as a free download on <http://
commonculture.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CWWPlaceName_
ResearchKirktonofGlenIslatoStage4Alyth_LR.pdf> [detailed toponymic survey 
of all the place-names on the Trail].
McNiven, Peter, 2017, Place-names of the Cateran Trail. Stage Five: Alyth to 
Blairgowrie, an e-publication available as a free download on <http://
commonculture-org-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/
CWWPlaceNameResearchAlythtoBlairgowrieStage5_LR.pdf> [detailed topo-
nym ic survey of all the place-names on the Trail].
McNiven, Peter, 2017, Place-names of the Cateran Trail. Mini Trail, an 
e-publication available as a free download on <http://commonculture.org.uk/
wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CWWPlaceNameResearchMiniTrail_LR.pdf> 
[detailed toponymic survey of all the place-names on the ‘Mini Trail’ circuit 
Kirkmichael-Enochdhu-Spittal of Glenshee-Cray-Kirkmichael].
Ó Mainnín, Mícheál B., 2017, Annexing Irish Names to the English Tongue: 
Language Contact and the Anglicisation of Irish Place-names, Paul Walsh 
Memorial Lecture 2/Léacht Chuimhneacháin an Bhreathnaigh 2 (Scoil an 
Léinn Cheiltigh, Ollscoil Mhá Nuad/School of Celtic Studies, Maynooth 
University).
Cooijmans, Christian, 2017, ed., associate eds Alan Macniven and John R. 
Baldwin, Traversing the Inner Seas: Contacts and Continuity in and around 
Scotland, the Hebrides, and the North of Ireland (Edinburgh: Scottish Society 
for Northern Studies).
Cox, Richard A. V., and Richard Lathe, 2017, ‘The Question of the Etymology of 
Dunadd, a Fortress of the Dalriadic Scots’, The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 
11, 21–36.
Edmonds, Fiona, and Simon Taylor, 2017, ‘Language and Names’, in Northern 
England and Southern Scotland in the Central Middle Ages, ed. Keith J. Stringer 
and Angus J. L. Winchester (Martlesham, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer), 137–72.
Evemalm, Sofia, 2017, ‘Theory and Practice in the Coining and Transmission of 
Place-Names: A Study of the Norse and Gaelic Anthropo-Toponyms of Lewis’, 
a doctoral thesis, University of Glasgow. <http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8751/>
Foster, Ryan, 2017, ‘The Use of the Scandinavian Place-Name Elements -Sætr 
and -Ærgi in Skye and the Outer Hebrides: A Site and Situation Study’, in 
Cooijmans 2017, 107–39.
Holliday, John, 2017, ‘Longhouses Below the Waves: A Place-Name Analysis of 
the Norse Settlement of Tiree’, in Cooijmans  2017, 2–21.
Hough, Carole, 2017, ‘Place-names and the history of Scots’, History Scotland 17.3, 
38–39.
Hunter, Fraser, and Jack Hunter 2017, ‘St. Patrick’s Footprint – an Early Medieval 
Royal Inauguration Site at Portpatrick?’, Transactions of the Dumfries & 
Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 91, 49–72 [includes ‘A 
reconsideration of the Medieval sources for Portpatrick/Port Rí’ by James E. 
Fraser, with discussion of Port Rí, Rind Snoc and sliabh-names in The Rhinns, 
61–63].
James, Alan, 2017, ‘Angles and Britons around Trusty’s Hill: some Onomastic 
Considerations’, Transactions of the Dumfries & Galloway Natural History 
and Antiquarian Society 91, 17–48 [discusses place-names in the S. W. 
Stewartry, examining critically the place-name assertions in Ronan Toolis and 
Christopher, 2016, The lost Dark Age kingdom of Rheged: the discovery of a royal 
stronghold at Trusty’s Hill, Galloway (Oxford and Philadelphia (PA)].
King, Jacob, with Eilidh Sgaimeal, n.d. [2017], Gaelic in the Landscape: Place-
names of Colonsay and Oronsay/Gàidhlig air Aghaidh na Tìre: Ainmean-àite 
Cholbhasa agus Orasa (Scottish Natural Heritage/Dualchas Nàdair na h-Alba 
and Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba/Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland), available free 
online at <http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/publications/Colonsay_Book.pdf>
Kruse, Arne, 2017, ‘The Norway to Be: Laithlind and Avaldsnes’, in Cooijmans 
2017, 198–231 [a convincing new explanation of the origin of Laithlind/
Lochlann].
Simon Taylor100
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 12 2018, 97–100
O’ Neill, Pamela, 2017, ‘A Possible Early Medieval Route across Scotland’, in 
Germano-Celtica: A Festschrift for Brian Taylor, ed. Anders Ahlqvist and Pamela 
O’Neill, Sydney Series in Celtic Studies 16, 211–25 (University of Sydney) [with 
some discussion of place-names]. 
Sanmark, Alexandra, 2017, ‘An Exploration of Thing Sites in the Islands on the 
Scottish West Coast’, in Cooijmans 2017, 170–96.
Smith, Norval, 2017, ‘Muthill Saints: a parish of confusion’, The Journal of Scottish 
Name Studies 11, 55–92.
Stuart-Murray, John, 2017, ‘Reading the Gaelic Landscape’, TGSI LXVII (2013–
15), 205–314.
Taylor, Simon, with Peter McNiven and Eila Williamson, 2017, The Place-Names 
of Kinross-shire (Donington: Shaun Tyas).
Taylor, Simon, 2017, ‘St Vigeans: Place, Place-names and Saints’, in Hunting Picts: 
Medieval Sculpture at St Vigeans, Angus, Jane Geddes et al., 2 vols (Edinburgh, 
Historic Scotland), Vol. 1, 38–51.
Taylor, Simon, 2017, ‘From Cinrigh Monai to Civitas Sancti Andree: A Star is 
Born’, in Medieval St Andrews, ed. Michael Brown and Katie Stevenson, 20–34; 
Appendix One (The St Andrews Foundation Account), 345–68, Appendix Two 
(The Augustinian’s Account), 369–79, Appendix Three (The Boar’s Raik), 380–
83 (Martlesham, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer).
Reviews
Dunlop, Leonie, 2017, Review of Hough, Carole, with Daria Izdebska, 2016, The 
Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming (Oxford), in The Journal of Scottish 
Name Studies 11, 103–06.
Morgan, Peadar, 2017, Review of Cooijmans, Christian, et al., eds, 2017, Traversing 
the Inner Seas: Contacts and continuity in and around Scotland, the Hebrides, 
and the North of Ireland (Edinburgh: Scottish Society for Northern Studies), in 
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 11, 106–10.
Taylor, Simon, 2017, Review of Murray, John, 2014, Reading the Gaelic Landscape: 
Leughadh Aghaidh na Tìre (Dunbeath), in Review of Scottish Culture 27, 164–69.
New digital resources
Alan James’s ‘Notes on some Place-Names in and around The Fleet Valley’ on 
the Gatehouse Folk website: <http://www.gatehouse-folk.org.uk/detailpage.
asp?d=175&ID=9>.
Alasdair Whyte’s pages on Gaelic place-names in Glasgow on <https://glaschu.
net/placenames-project-university-of-glasgow>. 


English

Bibliography of Scottish Name Studies for 2017

Editor, The

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The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 8, 2014, 173
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies
County abbreviations for Scotland, England and Wales (pre-1975)
ABD Aberdeenshire KNT Kent
AGL Anglesey LAN Lanarkshire
ANG Angus LEI Leicestershire
ARG Argyllshire LIN Lincolnshire
AYR Ayrshire LNC Lancashire
BDF Bedfordshire MDX Middlesex
BNF Banffshire MER Merionethshire
BRE Brecknockshire MLO Midlothian
BRK Berkshire MON Monmouthshire
BTE Bute MOR Morayshire
BUC Buckinghamshire MTG Montgomeryshire
BWK Berwickshire NAI Nairnshire
CAI Caithness NFK Norfolk
CAM Cambridgeshire NTB Northumberland
CHE Cheshire NTP Northamptonshire
CLA Clackmannanshire NTT Nottinghamshire
CMB Cumberland ORK Orkney
CNW Cornwall OXF Oxfordshire
CRD Cardiganshire PEB Peeblesshire
CRM Carmarthenshire PEM Pembrokeshire
CRN Caernarvonshire PER Perthshire
DEN Denbighshire RAD Radnorshire
DEV Devon RNF Renfrewshire
DMF Dumfriesshire ROS Ross and Cromarty
DNB Dunbartonshire ROX Roxburghshire
DOR Dosetshire RUT Rutland
DRB Derbyshire SFK Suffolk
DRH Durham SHE Shetland
ELO East Lothian SHR Shropshire
ESX Essex SLK Selkirkshire
FIF Fife SOM Somerset
FLI Flintshire SSX Sussex
GLA Glamorgan STF Staffordshire
GLO Gloucestershire STL Stirlingshire
GTL Greater London SUR Surrey
HMP Hampshire SUT Sutherland
HNT Huntingdonshire WAR Warwickshire
HRE Herefordshire WIG Wigtownshire
HRT Hertfordshire WLO West Lothian
INV Inverness-shire WLT Wiltshire
IOM Isle of Man WML Westmoreland
IOW Isle of Wight WOR Worcestershire
KCB Kirkcudbrightshire YOE Yorkshire (East Riding)
KCD Kincardineshire YON Yorkshire (North Riding)
KNR Kinross-shire YOW Yorkshire (West Riding)


County Abbreviations

Dunlop, Leonie

The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 11, 2017, 103–10
Reviews
Carole Hough with Daria Izdebska (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming 
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), xxiii + 771 pp. £95 hardback. ISBN 9780199656431 
(£35 paperback. ISBN 9780198815532)
The inclusion of onomastics in the Oxford Handbooks series is an important milestone 
in the discipline’s history. It demonstrates the growing prominence of this field through 
the breadth of sub-disciplines evidenced in this publication and the wealth of current 
research. This publication offers guidance on some of the established arguments in 
onomastic theory, toponomastics, and anthroponomastics, and casts light on the 
relationship to name studies and other disciplines. Edited by Carole Hough, Professor 
of Onomastics at the University of Glasgow, The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming 
shows the ongoing progression of onomastics and promotes a sturdy foundation 
for future research. The publication is divided into seven parts: ‘Onomastic theory’, 
‘Toponomastics’, ‘Anthroponomastics’, ‘Literary onomastics’, ‘Socio-onomastics’, 
‘Onomastics and other disciplines’, and ‘Other types of names’. There are 47 chapters, 
and the minimal overlap between them shows a healthy cohesion in name studies 
without becoming repetitive for the reader. The chapters discussed below are those 
which focus on Scottish onomastics, with several others chosen to show the range of 
name studies available in the volume.
‘Part I: Onomastic Theory’ begins with ‘Names and Grammar’ by Willy Van 
Langendonck and Mark Van de Velde, which gives a necessary guide to the grammatical 
function of names, the competing theories in this research field, and the comparison of 
names to common nouns, pronouns, and determiners with useful examples to aid the 
reader. A grammatical discussion of sense moves elegantly into the following chapter, 
Staffan Nyström’s ‘Names and Meaning’, and the brief discussion of connotation sets 
up the grammatical aspect of this discussion for a number of subsequent chapters. 
The final section of this chapter regards names as prototypical to their categories, 
organizing the sub-sections from those argued to be the most prototypical to the least.
Simon Taylor’s ‘Methodologies in Place-Name Research’ which heads ‘Part II: 
Toponomastics’ offers sage advice on historical toponymy, closely informed by the 
author’s work on the Place-Names of Fife (5 vols., with Gilbert Márkus, 2006-12). 
Helpfully, Taylor has given a full account of the entry for Balquharn as it appears in 
the Survey of Scottish Place-Names, accounting for decisions made in the process 
of collating and displaying toponymic material, and showing that even the most 
mundane of place-names can benefit from a thorough analysis. ‘Even in the cases 
where there is little or no doubt concerning a given element, a detailed engagement 
with the landscape can shed much light on the precise definition and application of 
the element involved’ (p. 73). While the ‘Fieldwork’ section follows on from ‘Sources’, 
the landscape might be seen to be the ultimate source for toponomastics, and Taylor’s 
chapter demonstrates his enthusiasm for both the archive and the hilltop.
Scottish, and more widely UK, toponymics, is in a healthy state in regard to the 
number of researchers currently poring over maps (digital and physical) in the 
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The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 11, 2017, 103–10
Leonie Dunlop
National Library of Scotland and trekking all corners of Caledonia. This is reflected in 
the Handbook, which alongside Taylor’s contribution, boasts four chapters considering 
aspects of Scottish toponymy. Hough’s ‘Settlement Names’ updates aspects of the 
seminal work of Nicolaisen on the distribution of generic elements by contextualizing 
settlement names in the UK in a worldwide context with the careful application of 
theories of cognitive toponymy to settlement names. As she concludes, ‘the ultimate 
objective is systematic survey work on a global scale. Only then will it be possible to fit 
all the pieces of the jigsaw together’ (p. 103). Alison Grant’s ‘Names and Lexicography’ 
draws on the work of the Oxford English Dictionary, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish 
Tongue, and the Scottish National Dictionary. This chapter sheds light on the value of 
the onomasticon, highlighting the differing values of toponymic and anthroponymic 
evidence on the lexicon, and echoing Hough in stating the need for systematic 
analysis of onomastic material for its lexicographical value. One example from the 
toponymicon is dod, for which Grant shows that onomastic evidence antedates the 
dictionary entry by over five centuries. Scottish hill terms have long been the research 
focus of Peter Drummond, whose chapter on ‘Hill and Mountain Names’ builds on his 
Scottish Hill Names: Their Origin and Meaning (2007) within an international setting. 
His discussion of the use of personal names in oronyms, often but not always of 
colonial origin, alongside descriptive terms, shows the political power of naming and 
the prestige attached to the naming of our highest landscape features globally. He also 
discusses the complexities of renaming, and of dual-naming policies, as can be seen 
in the well-documented example of Uluru/Ayers Rock (p. 123). From political power in 
the naming of relief features to political status and social identity in regional language, 
Margaret Scott’s ‘Names and Dialectology’ maps out several lines of discussion 
within this sub-discipline, outlining the necessity to study non-standard varieties of 
language and unofficial names for onomastic research. The international output of 
sociolinguistic research provides a global framework for this sub-discipline, and the 
use of social media in engaging the community in onomastic research is demonstrated 
in the success of the Scots Words and Place-names project developed at the University 
of Glasgow. 
Katharina Leibring’s ‘Given Names in European Naming Systems’ in ‘Part III: 
Anthroponomastics’ gives an invaluable and concise history from the pre-Christian 
period to the present day. Motivations for naming are at the fore of this chapter and 
Leibring is careful to demonstrate the shortcomings of historical evidence while 
bringing to our attention the richness of written source material. Serge Brédart’s 
chapter on recalling personal names in ‘Part VI: Onomastics and Other Disciplines’ 
clearly sets out the four possibilities for the ‘tip-of-tongue’ phenomenon. The reader 
is expertly guided through these hypotheses and as Brédart concludes, ‘it is widely 
accepted that there is no one single factor explaining why personal names are more 
difficult to recall than are other kinds of words such as common nouns’ (p. 487). 
With Leibring’s chapter still in mind, the reader might wonder about tip-of-tongue 
phenomena in bynames of the Middle Ages or cognomens of the Roman Empire. The 
example given by Leibring of Marcus Tullius Cicero, of which the cognomen means 
‘chickpea’, might require some thought as to the distinguishing feature it describes, 
Reviews 105
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 11, 2017, 103–10
but perhaps it was difficult to forget the name of Publius Ovidius Naso or ‘big nose’ on 
meeting him. Might he have been glad to know he is remembered by posterity as Ovid?
The comparatively young discipline of Literary Onomastics (Part IV) is defined 
by Paul Cavill in the title of his chapter as ‘Language-based approaches to names in 
literature’. Here, he illustrates the historical use of both personal names and place-
names in literary texts. Cavill sets out the chapter with an overview of the subject, 
then takes the reader on a chronological journey from biblical contexts to Late Modern 
literature. He highlights the variety of motivations behind naming, including folk 
etymology, allegory, and punning, bringing a refreshing take to a subject which has 
not been as extensively researched as toponomastics. Also in this section is Karina 
Van Dalen-Oskam’s chapter, ‘Corpus-based approaches to names in literature’, which 
focuses on electronic corpora as tools for researching all personal names in a substantial 
text, or across the whole body of an author’s work. Using quantitative methods allows 
for alternative analyses of name data, and she persuasively demonstrates the need 
for this approach alongside qualitative studies in literary onomastics, while stating 
frankly the problems involved in handling large corpora. 
Part V on ‘Socio-onomastics’ includes Katarzyna Aleksiejuk’s chapter on 
‘Pseudonyms’ which details traditional authorial practices as well as current 
approaches to online usernames, and Paula Sjöblom’s chapter on ‘Commercial Names’, 
which contextualises globalised business-naming and product-naming practices. 
Guy Puzey’s chapter on ‘Linguistic Landscapes’ and Laura Kostanski’s chapter on 
‘Toponymic Attachment’ showcase their important work in these areas of political 
toponymy. Puzey and Kostanski’s edited volume, Names and Naming: People, Places, 
Perceptions and Power (2016) also furthers current endeavours in the relatively new 
field of critical onomastics.
The final section, ‘Part VII: Other Types of Names’, contains a mix of studies 
currently more peripheral to onomastics. A rollercoaster through the outback of 
naming, the chapter by Marc Alexander focuses on the names of stars, comets, and 
planets. In this chapter, the modern rules for naming celestial bodies are explained, 
along with their rationale, and the imaginative manner in which such rules have been 
constructed is outlined. For example, ‘rules […] govern which origin language should 
be used for newly-discovered Saturnian satellites based on the angle of the moon’s 
orbit’ (p. 634). One element which might improve Part VII would be the inclusion of a 
chapter on plant names, but this is a minor quibble in a thought-provoking concluding 
section to the publication.
A book edited in Glasgow, which has taken the reader to Saturn, with tours 
of islands, pseudonyms, and dialectology along the way, this is a much-needed 
compendium for every onomast’s shelf. As a handbook, this publication balances the 
variety of topics within current onomastics research, not overemphasizing one area 
to the detriment of another, and provides a coherent appraisal of the research to this 
point in time. The geographical range of chapters oscillates from those which cover 
one region, to those which compare two regions, to those which take their examples 
from multiple regions. However, the handbook does perhaps struggle to bring the 
overarching discussion outside of the Eurocentric (including Britocentric) sphere. 
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The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 11, 2017, 103–10
Peadar Morgan
Exceptions include Neethling’s chapter on ‘Street Names’, which focuses on South 
Africa, Koopman’s chapter on ‘Ethnonyms’ which discusses some African naming 
systems, and the ‘Personal Naming Systems’ chapter, a work of many hands collated by 
Edwin D. Lawson, with brief commentary on Chinese, Māori and Zulu names. While 
the Handbook could be seen to fall short in respect of its global reach, it does bring 
innovative and inspiring research to the fore, pointing to the many areas in which 
the next generation of onomasts might focus their research. It provides an ambitious 
framework for the discipline and amiably invites more to be done that does not merely 
tread the same path. In providing this structured approach to the discipline, the 
Handbook enables researchers to contextualize their own work and for the student, 
chapters conclude with further reading and possible future directions for topics, 
efficiently familiarizing the reader with the context of each study. I have no doubt 
this publication will be well-thumbed by academics, students, and many more with 
an interest in names. Perhaps the most necessary attribute of a handbook is not to be 
comprehensive, but to act as a gateway to a subject and to set a standard within an 
area of research, and this volume does this with the open invitation for others to join 
onomastic endeavours.
Leonie Dunlop, University of Edinburgh
Christian Cooijmans (ed.), Alan Macniven and John R. Baldwin (assoc. eds.), 
Traversing the Inner Seas: Contacts and continuity in and around Scotland, the Hebrides, 
and the North of Ireland (Edinburgh: The Scottish Society for Northern Studies, 2017), 
290 pp. £14.95. ISBN 9781527205840
This volume is drawn from the 2015 residential conference of the Scottish Society for 
Northern Studies, comprising ten peer-reviewed papers, each of which stands alone 
as an important contribution to our understanding of the underlying Scandinavian 
stratum to the Gaelic heritage of the Hebrides, while they together weave a marvellously 
interdisciplinary tale of the sudden arrival of an enduring Viking culture along the 
‘Inner Seas’, and across and beyond this littoral of the West Highlands and Islands. 
And it is this persistence that despite linguistically conceding to Gaelic pressure from 
the east and south makes Innse Gall ‘the isles of foreigners’, stand out from the semi-
Scandinavian cultures of the mainland and Clyde.
There is little to criticise and much to digest in this high-quality publication, which 
includes a good number of fine maps and illustrations, many in colour. Unedited 
mistakes? There are a few, mostly in dealing with Gaelic names, along with a couple 
of formatting slips; but these are neither plentiful nor problematic. One repeated 
irritation is an adherence to the landlord-imposed spelling ‘Rhum’ for the island, 
despite it being some time since current owners Scottish Natural Heritage reverted 
to Rùm, subsequently adopted by the Ordnance Survey (OS), complete with diacritic. 
But the only major weakness in the book is its lack of an index, which will restrict the 
impact of its contents on related debates. The structure – not followed in this review 
– can only go some way in minimising this deficit, but is still useful in grouping the 
papers as subjects: ‘Along’, ‘Across’ or ‘Beyond the Inner Seas’.


Carole Hough with Daria Izdebska, The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming

Taylor, Rex

Street Names and National Identities

Evemalm, Sofia

The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 13, 2019, 115–20
Re ie s
Jacob King (ed.), Scottish Gaelic Place-names: The Collected Works of Charles M. 
Robertson 1864–1927 (Sleat, Isle of Skye: Clò Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba, 2019), xxxvi + 
554 pp. £19.99 paperback. ISBN 9781721806874
The publication of the collected works of Rev. Charles M. Robertson, edited by Dr 
Jacob King, makes a hitherto largely overlooked resource accessible to scholars 
with an interest in Scotland’s place-names at a very reasonable price. Most of the 
material contained in the book can be found in its original form in the National 
Library of Scotland (NLS) (p. xxiii), but compiling Robertson’s work in a published 
volume is an important step towards acknowledging the impact of his eldwork 
on early Scottish toponymy. The rst part of the book consists of a selection of ten 
essays, the majority of which remained unpublished in Robertson’s lifetime. They 
include a wide range of topics which do not only address Gaelic place-names. A 
brief selection follows here: in the ‘Topography and Traditions of Eigg’ Robertson 
has collected traditions associated with ecclesiastical and other sites from a range 
of sources, both published and unpublished. In the essay on ‘Biblical Place-names 
of Scotland’ (which in fact mainly consists of Scots place-names rather than Gaelic 
ones), a selection of Scottish place-names which he has labelled ‘Scripture names’ 
are presented. Finally, in ‘Studies in Place-names’, as King states in the introduction, 
‘The published article as it stands is really on three topics’ (p. 67), beginning with 
Names of Peoples, moving on to a discussion on the elements Aber- and Pit- 
and concluding with a discussion on Proper names of Streams and Valleys. The 
second part of the book, which is arguably where its true value lies, is comprised 
of regional place-name surveys of varying scope. The most detailed surveys cover 
‘Jura, Highland Perthshire and Wester Ross, with other surveys covering Islay, Mid 
Ross, Sutherland, Caithness, Argyll and the Southern Hebrides’ (p. xxxii). The lack 
of coverage in the estern and orthern Isles re ects an emphasis on collecting 
rst-hand material in areas where Robertson himself lived. The surveys typically 
consist of place-name entries given in the Ordnance Survey form, accompanied 
by the Gaelic pronunciation and other information deemed relevant (p. xxxii). 
King’s careful handling of the collections and an editorial policy which aims to 
present the source material as intact as possible, while maintaining the toponymic 
focus of the book and removing ‘unnecessary text’ (p. xxxvi), means that the 
reader has a solid basis from which to use Robertson’s work. Any changes to the 
original source material and the reasoning behind it are clearly explained in the 
introduction. For example, as far as possible, overlapping material in Robertson’s 
notebooks has been merged and this is explained in the introductory notes to 
each survey (p. xxxv). Both the introduction and notes preceding each essay and 
116
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 13, 2019, 115–20
So a emalm
area survey contain helpful detective work which will be a great aid to scholars 
seeking to make use of the original sources in the NLS. Several of the issues 
outlined below are addressed by King in the introduction. Additionally, in a source 
which is so intrinsically linked to the author’s own experiences, the account of 
Robertson’s life is helpful (pp. xiii–xxiv). It is di cult to criticise any aspect of the 
editing. However, whilst recognising the vast amount of work required to provide 
grid references for each entry, the addition of spatial information, at least for 
important place-names in the surveys, would be highly bene cial, particularly 
in a book which is explicitly aimed towards toponymists. It is worth highlighting 
that the title Scottish Gaelic Place-names may lead readers to believe that this is a 
comprehensive, authoritative work on Scotland’s Gaelic place-names; this is not 
the case. This is a work which, to be used e ciently, re uires readers to have (as Dr 
Simon Taylor puts it on the back cover) ‘a serious interest in Scottish place-names’. 
In consideration of this, the subtitle, The Collected Works of Charles M. Robertson, 
may have been more appropriately used as the title of the book. Otherwise, there 
is little to remark on, except for a misplaced footnote on p. 402. 
The wealth of place-names collected by someone who knew and lived in the 
areas surveyed presents the reader with a wonderful resource. Despite this, the 
signi cance of these collections has generally been overlooked in toponymic circles 
and Robertson himself remains relatively unacknowledged compared to other 
Gaelic scholars of his time. This becomes particularly obvious when considering 
that, ‘If published today, [W. J. Watson’s 1904] Place Names of Ross and Cromarty 
would certainly be considered a co-authored work. Much material covering the 
West of Ross-shire is lifted largely verbatim from Robertson’s notebook’ (p. xix). 
e may conclude that some if not a signi cant amount of atson’s information 
here originally derived from Robertson or was at least in uenced by him. Torridon 
(Applecross) may provide an example of this. In 1902, Robertson objected to ‘Mr 
Watson’s Norse derivation of it’, instead proposing a Gaelic one, partially based on 
the local pronunciation (p. 148). In The Place Names of Ross and Cromarty (p. 210), 
published two years later, there is no trace of a Norse interpretation for this place-
name. In light of this, these collections are not only an important source for 
individual place-name forms. They can also allow us to trace the development of 
traditions that have become embedded in our understanding of Gaelic Scotland 
from the early twentieth century. As remarked by Domhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart 
(p. ix), the place-name surveys provide a wealth of local Gaelic pronunciations, 
which will be of great assistance to scholars compiling future surveys in the areas 
covered. They also contain otherwise unrecorded name-forms and, in some 
instances, place-names that do not appear on any of the OS maps, the importance 
of which is obvious. Despite its title, the book is not only of value for scholars 
studying Gaelic place-names. A large number of the place-names collected by 
Reviews 117
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 13, 2019, 115–20
Robertson contain formations that are ultimately of Norse origin and many of the 
name forms are useful to anyone with an interest in Scandinavian Scotland. The 
name which appears on the S maps (modern and rst edition six inch) as eac 
Earnadail NR445665, containing a Norse coining with ON dalr ‘dale, valley’, will 
su ce to demonstrate this. Robertson provides the form eac arradail (p. 397) 
which may indicate that the speci c element in the original orse place-name 
may be of a rather di ferent derivation than the S map forms suggest. Finally, 
much can be made of the value of the folklore present in Robertson’s work, 
which can improve our understanding of the history and development of micro-
toponyms. The merit of using folklore as a tool in place-name studies is becoming 
increasingly acknowledged and there is no doubt that this work will provide an 
excellent resource for name scholars. The stories also provide intriguing and 
sometimes humorous reading. An example of this is the story of the cave named 
Uamh na Corpaich (Jura) where co ns were kept overnight by funeral parties 
from Colonsay: 
On one occasion whilst the party was passing the night in the cave the cof-
n was seen to move  one of the party on this occasion stretched out his 
hand, took up a loaded gun and aimed and red at the co n. He knew well 
what he was about, however, for when they gathered about the co n to 
see the e fects of the shot they found an otter béist dubh killed by the shot. 
The animal had been pulling at the co n and so caused the movements 
observed by the watchers. (p. 389) 
The collections presented as a whole su fer from the wide range of areas 
and topics covered. This is a re ection of the original source material, especially 
the area surveys, which are transcribed from Robertson’s original notebooks. 
In some cases, these appear to have remained a work in progress for much of 
his lifetime (see for example his survey of Perthshire, p. 253). The surveys also 
di fer widely depending on Robertson’s own familiarity and experience of each 
area. For instance, despite living on Islay for over ten years (p. 399), the survey 
here is very brief and he provides almost no etymologies for the place-names. 
It is crucial to remember that in some respects Robertson’s scholarship is dated 
and, unsurprisingly, it is necessary to approach it as a work of its time. Our 
understanding of several of the topics and place-names discussed has progressed 
signi cantly. otably, in the case of Grulin (p. 19) Dr Alasdair hyte’s recent work 
(‘Gruline, Mull, and Other Inner Hebridean Things’, JSNS 8 (2014), 117, 147), in which 
he argues that Grulin(e) place-names denote a compound with ON grjót ‘(rough) 
stone(s)’ and ON þing ‘assembly-place’, has provided a substantial contribution 
to our understanding of these place-names. In the essays, the methodology and 
presentation of place-name analysis at times require a fresh methodological 
118
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 13, 2019, 115–20
Cuthbertson
perspective. For instance, in the essay on Biblical place-names, names as varied 
as Mount Pisgah (Stonehouse Parish), Jacob’s Well (Uddingston) and Hell’s Glen 
(Argyll) (pp. 49–51) are discussed under the label ‘Scripture names’. Although 
the re-analysis of Celtic and Norse names which originally had nothing to do 
with the Bible is addressed (p. 52), a modern name scholar would undoubtedly 
analyse the very di ferent contexts in which such names were coined and include 
a discussion on the validity of labelling place-names such as the Deil’s Beef Tub (p. 
50) a ‘Scripture name’. In some of the areas, particularly the Isle of Skye, Robertson 
has frequently provided his interpretation of place-names of Norse origin with 
varying e ciency. Here he followed contemporary scholars such as atson in 
often simply providing his translation of the name with no further explanation 
of its etymology and analysis. This is especially problematic considering the often 
complex nature of Old Norse place-names in Western Scotland. They generally 
only survive through a lens of Gaelic, often requiring careful and lengthy analysis. 
However, alternative explanations are occasionally provided when he found the 
etymology to be especially uncertain, as in Eilean Trodday: ‘ E ilean  Throdaidh  
orse  Thrond’s Isle (or pasture tr dh isle)’ (p. 197).
There can be no doubt of the profound value of this book as a resource for 
scholars in several elds, including toponomastics, oral culture and linguistics. 
King’s acknowledgement that ‘many of the forms from Robertson’s  notebooks 
have dictated Gaelic place-name forms of bilingual road and train station signs 
across Scotland’ (p. xi) speaks for itself. The careful editing makes an important 
resource more accessible to scholars. Although the source material cannot be 
approached as a work following the standards of current onomastic scholarship, 
particularly with regards to etymological analysis and methodology, this 
publication undoubtedly provides an excellent resource for Gaelic pronunciations 
and folklore. It will ensure the appropriate recognition of Robertson’s work in the 
years to come.
Sofia E emalm, ni ersit  of las o
Guy Puzey and Laura Kostanski (eds.), Names and Naming: People, places, 
erce tions and o er (Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2016), 258 pp. ISBN 
9781783094905
In its introduction, Names and Namin  eo le  laces  erce tions and o er states 
that the volume ‘seeks to contribute to the growing eld of critical onomastic 
theory’ and highlights the drive towards critically analysing names in a social and 
political context. The edited volume is split into three sections dedicated to issues 
of identity, attachment and power relations, respectively. Each section contains 
ve chapters dealing with a mixture of personal and place-names. 


Jacob King (ed.): Scottish Gaelic Place-names: The Collected Works of Charles M. Robertson 1864–1927

The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 13, 2019, 124‒25
Notes on Contributors
Dr Nick Aitchison has written about various aspects of the archaeology and 
history of early Scotland and Ireland. His current interests focus on the Insular 
Celts, particularly in what is now Scotland, in an attempt to combine onomastic 
with archaeological, historical and literary evidence to produce new insights or 
perspectives. Born and brought up in Stirlingshire, he also has an interest in the 
place-names of central Scotland.
Richard Coates is Professor emeritus of Onomastics at the University of the 
West of England, Bristol. He is President of the English Place-Name Society 
(EPNS) and former Honorary Director of the Survey of English Place-Names. He 
was Principal Investigator for the Family Names of the United Kingdom project 
(AHRC 2010–16) and has been Secretary and Vice-President of the International 
Council of Onomastic Sciences (2002–08, 2011–17). His most recent books have 
been contributions to the Your City’s Place-Names series of the EPNS.
Dr Katherine Cuthbertson recently completed her PhD at the University of 
Glasgow on ‘The use of name evidence in lexicography: comparative analysis of 
onomastic data for historical and contemporary Scots’ (2018).
Dr Sofia Evemalm recently completed her PhD at the University of Glasgow on 
‘Theory and practice in the coining and transmission of place-names: a study of 
the Norse and Gaelic anthropo-toponyms of Lewis’ (2018).
Professor Anthony Lodge is Emeritus Professor of French Language and 
Linguistics in the University of St Andrews. His main area of research is in 
historical sociolinguistics and dialectology. He is the author of works on the 
relationship between dialect and standard in Gallo-Romance and on the 
sociolinguistic history of the French of Paris. He has recently completed a four-
volume edition of the municipal accounts of Montferrand (Auvergne) (1259–
1385), involving a close analysis of the Auvergnat dialect of medieval Occitan. He 
is about to publish a history of Pittenweem Priory.
Dr Rex Taylor is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Glasgow. Apart 
from an early study of personal names in the USA (‘John Doe, Jr: A Study of His 
Distribution in Space, Time and the Social Structure’, Social Forces 53, 1974), all his 
publications have been in epidemiology and medical sociology. Since retiring he 
has divided his time between Scotland and France. He has recently completed a 
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 13, 2019, 124‒25
study of French street names in twenty villages, in which he explores variations 
in commemorative naming between villages (forthcoming, Onoma).
Dr Simon Taylor has been working on various aspects of Scottish place-name 
studies since the early 1990s, including the production of detailed surveys of Fife 
(5 volumes, 2006‒2012), Kinross-shire (1 volume, 2017) and Clackmannanshire 
(1 volume, forthcoming). He is employed as a reader in Scottish Name Studies at 
the University of Glasgow. Editor of JSNS since its inception in 2007, he is now 
co-editor with Richard Cox.
John Garth Wilkinson is a retired schoolteacher who studied at the universities 
of Granada and Birmingham, gaining a BA (Hons) degree in Spanish and 
French, which he taught after further studies in Sheffield and Edinburgh, 
where he switched to the primary sector to work full-time for an eighth of a 
century, eventually teaching Art part-time. He has also worked as translator, 
photographer, calligrapher, stage designer, illustrator and caricaturist, being 
occasional resident cartoonist for the Scottish Place-Name Society Newsletter, 
to which he has contributed several articles, others appearing in Nomina and 
elsewhere; he has also published poetry and fiction. Born half-roads between 
Cymru and Cumberland, he began learning Welsh in the late 1980s in order 
to grapple with our earliest place-names; the revamping of his 1992 West 
Lothian Place-Names booklet and two other locally based works are perennially 
forthcoming.
125Notes on Contributors


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Bibliography of Scottish Name Studies for 2017

County Abbreviations

Carole Hough with Daria Izdebska, The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming

Street Names and National Identities

Jacob King (ed.): Scottish Gaelic Place-names: The Collected Works of Charles M. Robertson 1864–1927

Notes on Contributors

Simon Taylor with Gilbert Márkus: The Place-Names of Fife, Volume One (West Fife between Leven and Forth)

County Abbreviations

Neglected Topographic Names

Haberberui: An Aberration?

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