List of British places with Latin names
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This list includes places in Great Britain (including neighbouring islands such as the Isle of Man), some of which were part of the Roman Empire, or were later given Latin place names in
historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
references Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a ''name'' ...
.


Background

Until the
Modern Era The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is applie ...
, Latin was the common language for scholarship and mapmaking. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
scholars in particular have made significant contributions to the study of historical place names, or ''Ortsnamenkunde''. These studies have, in turn, contributed to the study of genealogy. For genealogists and historians of pre-Modern Europe, knowing alternative names of places is vital to extracting information from both public and private records. Even specialists in this field point out, however, that the information can be easily taken out of context, since there is a great deal of repetition of place names throughout Europe; reliance purely on apparent connections should therefore be tempered with valid historical methodology.


Caveats and notes

Latin place names are not always exclusive to one place — for example, there were several Roman cities whose names began with ''Colonia'' and then a more descriptive term. During the Middle Ages, these were often shortened to just ''Colonia''. One of these, ''Colonia Agrippinensis'', retains the name today in the form of Cologne (from French, German ''Köln''). Early sources for Roman names show numerous variants and spellings of the Latin names. The modern canonical name is listed first. In general, only the earliest source is shown for each name, although many of the names are recorded in more than one of the sources. Where the source differs in spelling, or has other alternatives, these are listed following the source. As an aid to searching, variants are spelled completely, and listed in most likely chronology.


Cities and towns in England


Cities and towns in Scotland


Cities and towns in Wales


Island names


Region or country names


See also

* List of Roman place names in Britain *
List of Latin place names used as specific names List of Latin place names used as specific names *A list of place names, used in Latin descriptions and, after the development of binomial nomenclature, as specific names in the natural sciences. {{compact ToC, side=yes, top=yes, num=no A *abanca ...


References


Sources

In order of likely publication: *TA: Tacitus (Gaius Cornelius Tacitus), '' Agricola'' *PNH: Pliny (Gaius Plinius Secundus), '' Naturalis Historia''; book "PNH" chapter (that is, "37PNH81" instead of the usual "N.H.xxxvii.81"). *PG: Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus), '' Geographia''; book "PG" chapter (that is, "2PG3" instead of the usual "II.3"). Ptolemy wrote in Greek, so names are transliterated back into Latin to reveal the original form. *AI:
Antonine Itinerary The Antonine Itinerary ( la, Itinerarium Antonini Augusti,  "The Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus") is a famous ''itinerarium'', a register of the stations and distances along various roads. Seemingly based on official documents, possibly ...
*ND: ''
Notitia Dignitatum The ''Notitia Dignitatum'' (Latin for "The List of Offices") is a document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of ...
'' *RC: Ravenna Cosmography, ''Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia'' *BSH: Buchanan, George (1506–1582): ''Rerum Scoticarum Historia'' (1582) *HLU:
Hofmann, Johann Jacob The ''Lexicon Universale'' of 1698 is an early modern humanist encyclopedia in Latin by Johann Jacob Hofmann of Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binninge ...
(1635–1706): ''Lexicon Universale'' *HD1851: Rejected by modern historians, but seen in this document from 1851

an

(bottom of one page to top of next) *GOL: The standard reference to Latin placenames, with their modern equivalents, is Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, Dr. J. G. Th. Grässe, '' Orbis Latinus : Lexikon lateinischer geographischer Namen des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit'' (1861), an exhaustive work of meticulous German scholarship that is available on-line in the second edition of 1909. To use it, one must understand German names of countries, as they were in 1909. The original was re-edited and expanded in a multi-volume edition in 1972. *A.L.F. Rivet and Colin Smith, ''The place-names of Roman Britain'', London, 1979 (reprinted by Book Club Associates, 1981).


External links


Antonine ItineraryBuchanan, Rerum Scoticarum HistoriaGrässe, Orbis LatinusHistorical Directories, England and Wales, from 1750 to 1919Roman Map of BritainList of Latin placenames in Britain
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Latin Place Names In Britain Latin in Britain Latin place names Britain Latin, Britain Britain Latin names Latin place names