This list includes places in Great Britain (including neighbouring islands such as the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

), some of which were part of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, or were later given

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

place names in

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

references A reference is a relationship between Object (philosophy), 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. ...

Background

Until the

Modern Era The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500 ...

, Latin was the common language for

scholarship A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, Multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, athleti ...

and mapmaking. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, German 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 Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

. 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 In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, these were often shortened to just ''Colonia''. One of these, ''Colonia Agrippinensis'', retains the name today in the form of

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

(from French, German ''Köln''). Early sources for Roman names show numerous variants and spellings of the

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

References

Sources

In order of likely publication: *TA:

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...

(Gaius Cornelius Tacitus), ''

Agricola Agricola, the Latin word for farmer, may also refer to: People Cognomen or given name :''In chronological order'' * Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40–93), Roman governor of Britannia (AD 77–85) * Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, Roman governor of the m ...

'' *PNH: Pliny (Gaius Plinius Secundus), ''

Naturalis Historia The ''Natural History'' () is a Latin work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. Despite the work' ...

''; book "PNH" chapter (that is, "37PNH81" instead of the usual "N.H.xxxvii.81"). *PG:

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

(Claudius Ptolemaeus), '' Geographia''; book "PG" chapter (that is, "2PG3" instead of the usual "II.3"). Ptolemy wrote in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, so names are

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

back into

to reveal the original form. *AI:

Antonine Itinerary The Antonine Itinerary (, "Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus") is an , a register of the stations and distances along various roads. Seemingly based on official documents, possibly in part from a survey carried out under Augustus, it describes t ...

*ND: ''

Notitia Dignitatum The (Latin for 'List of all dignities and administrations both civil and military') 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 ...

'' *RC:

Ravenna Cosmography The ''Ravenna Cosmography'' (, "The Cosmography of the Unknown Ravennese") is a work describing the Ecumene, known world from India to Ireland, compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around 700 AD. It consists of five books describing ...

, ''Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia'' *BSH: Buchanan, George (1506–1582): ''Rerum Scoticarum Historia'' (1582) *HLU: Hofmann, Johann Jacob (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:Latin Place Names In Britain Latin in Britain

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

Latin, Britain

Latin names Latin place names