Fantasy and fiction
Fantasy Place Names: Borrowing the Structure of Real Ones
At a glance
Most real place-names are compounds of a word for the kind of place, such as Old Norse thveit 'clearing' or Welsh aber 'river mouth', and a word that picks out this particular one. English puts the describing word first (Micklethwaite), while Welsh usually puts the place-word first (Aberystwyth, 'mouth of the Ystwyth'). Tolkien used this layering deliberately: the Shire has English-style names, while Bree, Combe, Archet and Chetwood were chosen to sound older and Celtic. He glossed Bree as 'hill', and his son Christopher recorded that it was based on Brill in Buckinghamshire, whose name combines a Brittonic and an English word for hill.
- English pattern
- Describing word + place-word: Micklethwaite 'big clearing'
- Welsh pattern
- Place-word + describing word or name: Aberystwyth, Llanbadarn
- Norse markers
- -by 'farmstead, village', -thorpe 'outlying farm', -thwaite 'clearing'
- Tolkien's model
- Bree from Brill (Buckinghamshire), per Christopher Tolkien: Brittonic + Old English, 'hill' + 'hill'
Real elements, Tolkien's names and some we built
| Name | Meaning or origin | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Bree Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings | Tolkien glossed it as an old word for 'hill', one of the Celtic-looking names that make Bree-land older than the Shire. [7] | Recorded |
| Brill Buckinghamshire place-name | Brittonic 'hill' + Old English hyll 'hill'. Christopher Tolkien recorded it as the model for Bree. [9] | Recorded |
| Chetwood Tolkien, Bree-land | Modelled on Chetwode near Brill. Tolkien took chet as an old word for 'wood'; for the real name, the first element is disputed. [10] | Uncertain |
| Combe Tolkien, Bree-land; English element | From Old English cumb 'valley'. Whether that word is Celtic or English in origin is unclear. [11] | Uncertain |
| Michel Delving Tolkien, the Shire | Old English micel 'great' + delving 'digging': an English-sounding town name that suits hobbit-holes. [5] | Recorded |
| Micklethwaite Yorkshire and Lake District | Norse mikill 'big' + thveit 'clearing'. [1] | Recorded |
| Embleton Northumberland | Looks like a -ton name but comes from dūn 'hill', not tūn 'farmstead'. Endings can mislead. [1] | Recorded |
| Aberystwyth Welsh | aber 'river mouth' + the river name Ystwyth. [3] | Recorded |
| Llanbadarn Welsh | llan 'church enclosure' + St Padarn, with the P softened to B. [3] | Recorded |
| Penfro (Pembroke) Welsh | 'Land's end', with pen 'head, end'. [3] | Recorded |
| Barmouth Welsh, anglicised | Originally Aber Mawdd, 'mouth of the Mawdd'. The aber is hidden in the modern form. [3] | Recorded |
| Coldmere Built from Old English | cald 'cold' + mere 'lake, pool'. May match a real minor name by chance. | Built from real parts |
| Ravensthwaite Built from Old Norse | hrafn 'raven' + thveit 'clearing', for a northern-sounding village. | Built from real parts |
| Aberdusk Our mixed example | Welsh aber + English dusk. Mixing languages in one name breaks the pattern, so use it only on purpose. | Invented |
- Recorded Found in historical records.
- Uncertain The origin or meaning is disputed or unproven.
- Built from real parts Made by us from genuine word elements.
- Invented An original name, made for this site.
Two parts make a place
Real place-names are usually compounds. One part says what sort of place it is: a ford, a clearing, a river mouth, a church. The other picks out this one: who owned it, what grew there, what it looked like. Micklethwaite, for example, is Norse mikill, 'big', plus thveit, 'clearing'.[1][2]
The order depends on the language. English and Norse put the describing word first. Welsh usually puts the place-word first, so Aberystwyth is 'mouth of the Ystwyth' and Llanbadarn is the church enclosure of St Padarn. Welsh also changes the first sound of the second word, which is why Padarn becomes -badarn and Mair becomes -fair in Llanfair.[3]
For a fuller list of English endings and what they mean, see our page on English place-name endings.
Endings that tell a story
Some elements are clear markers of who named a place. In England, -by ('farmstead, village'), -thorpe ('outlying farmstead') and -thwaite ('clearing') are typical of Scandinavian settlement, and Scandinavian names in general are much commoner in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk than in Suffolk, and almost absent from Essex.[1] Old English mere could mean a lake, a pool or the sea.[4]
In Wales, llan first meant an enclosure and came to mean a church with its graveyard, usually followed by a saint's name. Aber means a river mouth or a meeting of rivers, and pen a head or end, as in Penfro, 'land's end'. Welsh has a rich stock of landscape words, too: a hill might be a bre, bryn, moel or mynydd, and a ridge a cefn or esgair. Names such as Llwyncelyn, 'holly grove', show how much of the landscape ends up on the map.[3]
Endings can mislead, though. Embleton in Northumberland looks like a -ton name but comes from dūn, 'hill'.[1] Barmouth hides its aber: it was once Aber Mawdd, 'mouth of the Mawdd'.[3] Real names have to be checked against early spellings; invented ones only need to be consistent.
How Tolkien named the Shire and Bree
Tolkien used real naming layers to suggest history. The Shire's names sound English: Michel Delving joins Old English micel, 'great', with delving, 'digging': in effect 'Much Digging', a joke that suits hobbits, who live in holes.[5][6]
Bree-land is different. In Appendix F of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien explains that he gave Bree, Combe, Archet and Chetwood names with non-English, Celtic-looking elements, to show they were older than the Shire. He glossed bree as 'hill' and chet as 'wood'.[7]
Christopher Tolkien recorded that Bree was based on Brill in Buckinghamshire, a place his father knew well.[8] Brill is usually explained as a Brittonic word for 'hill' with Old English hyll, 'hill', added: a 'hill-hill'.[9] Tolkien's Chetwood echoes Chetwode nearby, but dictionaries treat the real name's first element as unclear, so 'wood-wood' is a likely reading, not a certain one.[10]
Keeping a map consistent
This is writing advice drawn from the patterns above:
- Give each culture its own set of elements. If the north speaks a Norse-like language, its villages end in -by and -thwaite. If the west is Welsh-like, its towns start with aber- and llan-.
- Keep the word order. Norse- or English-style names put the describing word first; Welsh-style names put the place-word first.[1][3]
- Match the landscape. An aber needs a river mouth; a -thwaite needs a clearing.
- Use layers for history. Older names can survive under newer ones, as Tolkien did with Bree.[7]
- Mix languages only on purpose. A name like our Aberdusk mixes Welsh and English and will read as odd unless that is the point.
Our town and country generators combine elements in this way. Their results are invented, and any match with a real place is a coincidence.