In early January I had the privilege of attending a lecture by Diana Whaley, who was professor of Medieval History at Newcastle University. I was able to learn a lot from the lecture about how North East places got their names. Here is some of what I learned.
Celtic or Brittonic influence
The pre–Roman Celtic or Botanic languages have left little mark on the English language as a whole. However, one area in which they have retained importance is as names and we can see this in the North East. For example, we have the Derwent River, which means ‘with oaks’ , the River Pont coming from the word for valley and the word Tyne, which may come from the word for ‘flowing’.
The highest hill in Northumbria, the Cheviot also comes from Celtic or Brittonic roots, meaning ridge (plus a suffix) and Yeavering Bell, where the Anglo Saxons built their fort Ad Gefrin comes from the Celtic or Britonnic for ‘hill of goats’.
Other Brittonic words adopted into English include Little Carr and Muckle Carr found on the Northumbrian coast. Surprisingly, we also have Brittonic names for Roman forts and these are among the earliest names of places from the North East, very few of them being in Latin.
Latin or Roman influence
However, there are a number of place names in our region which do come from Latin, a reminder when the Romans were here and built their wall. For example, Pons Aeulius, the first name for Newcastle, comes from Latin, which reminds us of how the Romans built the first bridge that we know of across the Tyne at Newcastle, ‘pons’ meaning bridge and Aeulius being a family name for Hadrian.
Then we have a whole number of other place names which may be a result of the Roman occupation. These include Thirlwall, Walltown, Walwick Walbottle, Benwell, Walker and Wallsend. Additionally, the place name of Condercum in the west end of Newcastle comes from the Roman temple that was built there with the name meaning ‘within the wall’, as the temple was built just to the south of Hadrian’s Wall.
One very common Latin word which was adopted into place names all over the country was castrum meaning fort. This has often been adopted and in our own region, we can see it at Lanchester, Chesters, Chester le Street and what was probably the name for Newcastle before it became Newcastle; Monkchester.
Old English names
Now we can move on to the old English place names which come from the original Anglo-Saxon languages that were brought over here in the 5th century. In Northumbria the varieties of language tended to be Anglian.
These included the word ‘ham or homestead’, which can be found at Hexham, Fenham and Seaham, the word ‘wic’, meaning specialised or ‘secondary place or farm’ found in Elswick, ‘botl’, meaning dwelling found at Walbottle, ‘worth’ meaning ‘enclosure’ as in Warkworth’ and Heworth and ‘cot’, meaning ‘cottage or dwelling’ as we can see at Cullercoats.
The word ‘tun’ also comes from the old English and there are said to be 213 names ending in ‘ton’ such as Benton, Kenton and Denton. All in Newcastle.
Then we have old English place names that come from topographical elements, these include from the word burn for stream such as Seaburn and Whitburn and the name Ponteland, which comes from the island of the River Pont.
Ford is another word coming from the old English and we see that in Gosforth and Sandyford while Gateshead’s name comes from the word for ‘headland’. Meanwhile, there are also coastal places in Northumbria like Monkwearmouth and Tynemouth, where the word ‘mouth’ comes from the old English for estuary.
The Norse influence
The Vikings first arrived in Northumbria, at Lindisfarne in 793, in a looting mission, but they did come to settle in the long run. However, their influence on place names is not as striking as it is further south in Yorkshire. That said both Byker and Walker in Newcastle contain Norse-derived elements in their names.
Naming Newcastle
The original name for Newcastle was, as we have seen, Pons Aeulius, meaning the bridge of Aeulius, which was a family name for Hadrian. Following that, any settlement in the area had the name of Monkchester, with ‘chester’ coming from the Latin word castrum for camp and monk meaning, well, monk!
As there had been a fort there already, built by the Romans, when the castle was built in 1080 by the Normans, it was known as the new castle and hence the city got its name.
Norman influence
With the coming of the Normans most places retained their old names, although some got additional names due to Norman landowners taking the land in the area. One example is Seaton Delaval on the Northumberland coast. Place names also got their spelling modified.
Some wholly French names did arrive, such as Bearpark meaning ‘beautiful retreat’ and Plessey meaning ‘enclosure’. Some French vocabulary was also adopted into the English language for example at Causey Park and Forest Hall.
Middle English
Some Middle English is also being used for place names. For example, the word ‘shield’ meant ‘hut; which gave the name to both North Shields and South Shields near the mouth of the Tyne.
So many layers
The story of our Northumbrian place names then, is the story of the different groups of people who came to live and take over the land. These stretched from Celts to Romans, from Anglo-Saxons to Vikings and finally the Norman French. All these different groups contributed to the variety of place names we find in the North East.
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