Where do Irish Placenames Come From?

Irish placenames were first recorded in November 1824, with the beginning of the British Ordnance Survey. Efforts were made to decide a suitable English language spelling for each name which had not already an accepted standardised English orthographic form.

Those who recorded the placenames tended not to be literate in Irish, and this problem tended to be tackled in one of three ways. In some instances, they ignored the original Irish placename, and instead gifted the land a new name. This was particularly common for plantations, such as Uibh Failghe, which is now County Offaly, but was once called ‘King’s County’. On other occasions, the surveyors translated the name in an effort to preserve its meaning, so Caisleán an Ridire in Wicklow, for example, became ‘Knight’s Castle’. Alternatively, attempts were made to transcribe the name, despite lacking any knowledge of the Irish phonetic alphabet, such as An Aill, meaning ‘The Cliff’, in north Co. Dublin, became ‘Naul’. Numerous examples can be found of these anglicisations. Since the vast majority of the names originated in the Irish language, the standardised forms were to be anglicisations, such as ‘Baile’ becoming ‘Bally’ and ‘Cill’ becoming ‘Kil’, etc.

The early surveyors of Ireland may have distorted our local placenames, but they nonetheless capture much local and family history. By using more than 2,700 tracings, these surveyors were able to confirm precise locations of townland boundaries, as established 168 years previously. This work ensured a reliable continuity in ancient boundaries of townlands, villages, civil parishes and baronies from the 1600s to the 21st century. Speaking of which, it may be useful to clarify some of the terminology used when describing land boundaries in Ireland, such as townland, parish, village, town and barony.