Reddit
reddit.com › r/worldbuilding › real world placename prefixes and suffixes
r/worldbuilding on Reddit: Real World Placename Prefixes and Suffixes
April 30, 2023 - The suffix -ville was more common in Normandy region of France and often came after the name of the person who owned that estate. As these places grew they became equated to villages and later towns and cities. "Village" derived from the word "villaticum", which means "related or having to do with the villa".
Pronunciation Studio
pronunciationstudio.com › home › english place name suffixes
English Place Name Suffixes - Pronunciation Studio
January 23, 2017 - This ending literally refers to the mouth of a river, but as a suffix, we don’t use the strong pronunciation /maʊθ/, instead we use the weak pronunciation /məθ/: ... From Old English, very simply meaning a ‘place’ or ‘enclosed pasture’. Usually pronounced weakly as /stɪd/:
Videos
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › List_of_generic_forms_in_place_names_in_the_British_Isles
List of generic forms in place names in the British Isles - Wikipedia
1 month ago - This article lists a number of common generic forms in place names in the British Isles, their meanings and some examples of their use. The study of place names is called toponymy; for a more detailed examination of this subject in relation to British and Irish place names, refer to Toponymy ...
Rashidfaridi
rashidfaridi.com › 2022 › 01 › 30 › suffixes-in-place-names-origin-and-meaning
Suffixes in Place Names: Origin and Meaning | Rashid's Blog: Portal for Inquisitive Learners
March 2, 2022 - However in UK we have loads of play suffixes that pop up all over the country what’s interesting about these is how they do graphically laid out take the cess the suffix as an example most of these appear in the South a Midlands of England like with Winchester, Chester, Leicester Gloucester etc this comes from Latin meaning camp it makes sense this comes from Latin and it would mainly be in the more southern side of England as the Romans would their Latin would have come into the nation via the south while the B suffix is no some meaning settlement or village be seen in Derby and Grimsby whi
Cotyroneireland
cotyroneireland.com › places › placenames.html
Placename Prefix/Suffix Meanings
The place-name tends just to mean "round hill" (based in the Irish word for a skull, cloigeann) but Seamas O Ceallaigh (Gleanings from Ulster History) pointed out that in Cos Derry/Tyrone it often seems to refer to church land, near the parish church. I'm not yet sure what I make of this · ...
The Intrepid Guide
theintrepidguide.com › home › language hacks › english › 20 hidden meanings of english place names you probably didn’t know
20 Hidden Meanings of English Place Names You Probably Didn't Know
October 22, 2020 - There are so many place names with the suffix ‘-ley’, like Shipley, Auckley, Ilkley etc. What does ‘-ley’ mean? Also, are such ‘-ley’ ending place names spread throughout the UK or there is a concentration in the Yorkshire area?
K.A. WINTERS
kawinters.wordpress.com › writers-portal › master-lists › town-prefixes-suffixes
Town Prefixes & Suffixes – K.A. WINTERS
March 24, 2021 - So, providing a real setting isn’t ... for your places, and that’s where this master list comes in. I have researched and found over 150 of the most commonly used words that build a name and have compiled them into the two prefixes & suffixes lists you see below. By all means, if you’re ...
SSP Innovations
sspinnovations.com › home › blog › american toponymy
American Toponymy - SSP Innovations
September 4, 2025 - Las Vegas means “The Meadows”. Mapping this info onto state boundary data using the following SQL to query US-designated places reveal: NAME LIKE ‘San %’ Or NAME LIKE ‘Santa %’ Or NAME LIKE ‘Los %’ Or NAME LIKE ‘La %’ OR NAME LIKE ‘Las %’ OR NAME LIKE ‘El %’ ... -ville is a French-influenced suffix meaning farm and it has commonality with words villa and village.
Saywhydoi
saywhydoi.com › meaning-of-place-names-why-do-we-call-places-by-certain-names
Meaning of Place Names: Why do we call places by certain names?
In Germany “beck” is sometimes seen in place names as “bach”. The place Boosbeck in Northern Britain means the cow shed (boos) near the stream · Birkbeck may translate to “birch tree by the stream”, or to a market (byrck) by the stream. Fleet Fleet as in the famous Fleet Street in London comes from the Old English word flēot which means a river or estuary. Fleet Street is indeed not far from the river Thames. Ford Places that have the Suffix “-ford” were often places that had fords, which were portions of a stream that were shallow enough to cross by foot or horse.
Straight Dope Message Board
boards.straightdope.com › miscellaneous and personal stuff i must share
Common place name suffixes? - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board
April 7, 2011 - I found a few threads regarding individual ones e.g. -stan, -grad but I’m looking to make a comprehensive list. These can be for cities/towns or countries. There’s the aforementioned -stan and -grad, also: -polis -ville -ford -furt -forth -shire -berg -burg -borough -brough -field -kirk ...
Routledge Textbooks
routledgetextbooks.com › textbooks › 9781138795457 › chapter3.php
3.1 Linguistics in place names - The History of Early English
Perhaps it is Llyn-don – the town (don) by the lake (llyn), or perhaps Laindon meaning ‘long hill’. It sits on the river Thames, from Celtic Tamesas, meaning ‘dark river’. There are plenty of other Celtic river names in England – Avon and Ouse meant ‘water’ or ‘stream’. And there are other place names with Celtic origins that have survived: Devon, Kent and Cumbria, for example. The Romans also left plenty of place-name evidence of their presence. The suffix -chester comes from the Latin castrum meaning encampment.
Sugarandloaf
sugarandloaf.com › guides › place-name-elements
The UK's most common place name elements | Sugar & Loaf
We’ve shuffled through and decoded every place and common place name element in the UK and picked out the most common and fascinating place name patterns.
Blogger
heredragonsabound.blogspot.com › 2018 › 07 › the-naming-of-places-part-9-towns.html
Here Dragons Abound: The Naming of Places (Part 9): Towns
Louis," “Denver") and fewer ... e.g., “Oklahoma City," “Greenwich Village", etc.) but many of them do end in suffixes that mean town, village or some variant, e.g., -ton, -ville, -boro, etc....
Inkyfool
blog.inkyfool.com › 2018 › 10 › a-quick-guide-to-decoding-english-place.html
Inky Fool: A Quick Guide to Decoding English Place Names
But as very few people carry one around, you can always get away with a bit of specious speculation using the above method. Plus, it makes road signs mildly more interesting. P.S. I've used the term "English" here because, obviously, none of this works for a Celtic place name. It would have confused things. The prefix Kil- means calf in English and Church in Celtic.
Big Think
bigthink.com › strange-maps › british-place-names
How to do archaeology with place names - Big Think
April 19, 2022 - It’s one of the most common suffixes in place names throughout England, but also Scotland and Wales. Familiar examples include Grimsby and Whitby, on the North Sea coast; Derby inland, Formby on the Irish Sea coast and Lockerbie in Scotland. There are hundreds of other examples, and they are among the most lasting relics of Scandinavian influence in Britain. By in Old Norse signified a farmstead or village. In modern Scandinavian languages, a ‘by’ still means ...
Top answer 1 of 2
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As Edwin has noted, there are references for even such obscure items as this. But that doesn't necessarily give every thing.
The study of place names is called 'toponymics' and every language has its own. People are just not that inventive, but the names we have inherited have gone through layers of minute changes till they have become unrecognizable.
Most of these suffixes (and prefixes) are geographical. The Celts and Germans had some very precise names for different kinds of features.
The suffix 'don' can come from what means either 'valley' (from OE), 'hill' or 'down' (from Celtic) or even 'fort' (as a prefix from Celtic). So depending on your particular town, look around and if you're in a lower area, it comes from one kind of name, but a low flat top grassy hill another, and a steep hill another. See the etymology of down and dune for more info.
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In the two cases you mention it comes from the Old English 'dun' meaning 'hill'.
I note the locations you refer to are in England, so you might find this site hosted by the Institute of Name Studies at the University of Nottingham useful:
http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Place_name_origins
Place name origins - Wikipedia
February 15, 2025 - In some cases the native meanings of a place name are wholly lost, despite guesses and theories, for example Tampa and Oregon. Place names in the United States tend to be more easily traceable to their origins, such as towns simply named after the founder or an important politician of the time, with no alterations except a simple suffix, like -town.
Rootsweb
freepages.rootsweb.com › ~pbtyc › genealogy › Misc › Etymology.html
Etymology Of British Place-names
THE following Glossary contains the principal components of the place-names in the British Isles, and with its aid the derivation of many names may be ascertained, and something may be learned of the physical condition of various localities in early times. In the Highlands of Scotland, Ireland, ...
Wordnik
wordnik.com › lists › place-name-suffixes
Wordnik: Place Name Suffixes
Stuck on what to call you fictional town, city, or other location? Just pop a word in front of one of these suffixes and you'll be ready to go!
Blogger
inmadom-myenglishclass.blogspot.com › 2011 › 10 › english-place-names.html
My English class: English place names
However, the military influence of the Romans was so overpowering, that the names of their fortifications or “castra” have remained with different spellings. Thus, we can find: Chester, Manchester, Colchester, Lancaster, Gloucester /ˈglɒstə/, Leicester /ˈlɛstər/ etc. From the word colonia, meaning settlement, we get the suffix -coln, as in Lincoln.