British toponymy (relating to the mainland and islands closely linked to it including the Shetland Islands, the Orkneys, and the Channel Islands) is the study of place names, their origins and the trends associated with naming places in specific regional areas. It is different from the study of etymology, which is concerned mainly with the origin of the name of a specific place. Toponymy is the taxonomic study of place names, their origins and their meanings. ... See Shetland (disambiguation) for other meanings. ... The Orkney Islands form one of 32 unitary council regions in Scotland, and are a Lieutenancy Area. ... Alternative meaning: Channel Islands of California The Channel Islands are a group of islands off the coast of Normandy, France, in the English Channel. ... Etymology is the study of the origins of words. ...

British toponymy is rich, complex and difficult. Moreover it is extremely inexact and non-empirical. Many British forms and names have been corrupted over the years through being occupied by many different groups of people speaking different languages with similar words meaning different things. In some cases words used in place names are derived from languages that are extinct, and of which there are no extant known definitions. There are also many compounds between two separate languages from separate periods. In biology and ecology, extinction is the ceasing of existence of a species or group of species. ...

The oldest and most ancient of place names tend to be rivers, and can be traced to Old European pre-Celtic languages (of which very little is known), and must be at least Neolithic in age. There are many other languages which have shaped and informed the nomenclature of Britain: various Celtic languages (including Brythonic, Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish and Pictish), Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, Norman French, modern French and a few others besides. The word Celtic can refer to: the European Celtic people, ancient or modern the Celtic languages, spoken by these people and their modern descendents the Celtic (Lusitania), Celts from the Alentejo. ... The Neolithic, (Greek neos=new, lithos=stone, or New Stone Age) is traditionally the last part of the stone age. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages. ... Brythonic is one of two major divisions of Insular Celtic languages (the other being Goidelic). ... Goidelic is one of two major divisions of modern-day Celtic languages (the other being Brythonic). ... Scottish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, or just Gaelic (Gàidhlig; IPA: ), is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. ... Welsh redirects here, and this article describes the Welsh language. ... The Cornish language (in Cornish: Kernowek, Kernewek, Curnoack) is one of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages that includes Welsh, Breton, the extinct Cumbric and perhaps the hypothetical Ivernic. ... The Picts inhabited Caledonia (Scotland), north of the River Forth. ... Latin is the language that was originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Old Norse is the Germanic language once spoken by the inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until the 13th century. ... The Norman language is a Romance language, one of the Oïl languages. ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ...

The Anglo-Saxons contributed elements such as ham, -ingas, -inga-, -eg, feld, ford, and dun. Scandinavian place names were commonest in the area covered by the Danelaw, but south of Watling Street place names were more British-Scandinavian hybrid. The Danelaw (from the Old English Dena lagu) was an area of England under the administrative control of the Vikings (or Danes, or Norsemen) from the late 9th century. ... Watling Street was a Roman road which went from Dover on the southeast coast of England and is generally believed to have terminated at Viroconium (now Wroxeter in Shropshire). ... Scandinavia is the cultural and historic region of the Scandinavian Peninsula. ...

The Romans added various elements such as Regis (of the King), Magna (great) and Parvo (little).

Sometimes, identifying the origins and meaning of a name it is easy. The modern form of the name may reflect its original meaning. A good example of this is Box Hill, Surrey which is exactly what it says it is: a hill upon which box once grew. Sometimes it isn't: Bedlam, Yorkshire has nothing to do with the lunatic asylum (Bedlam, from Bethlehem) of earlier times, but is a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon bodle lumm, "the place of the buildings". This article is about the box tree. ... A psychiatric hospital (also called a mental hospital or asylum) is a hospital specializing in the treatment of persons with mental illness. ... The Bethlem Royal Hospital, (which has been variously known as Bethlem Hospital, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam) is the worlds oldest madhouse or psychiatric hospital. ... This article is about the city in the West Bank. ...

'Back formation' is the process whereby modern names are given to rivers that had the original names forgotten, e.g. the River running through Rochdale became known as the Roch through this process. This article is about the English town. ...

The toponymy of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are considered under a separate heading, Irish toponymy (see also: Place names in Irish}. Northern Ireland is an administrative region and one of four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. ... Many place names in Ireland in the English language are either anglicisations of those in the Irish language, or completely different, such as the name for the capital of the Republic of Ireland, which in English is Dublin, but in Irish is Baile Átha Cliath. ...

See also

• Etymological list of counties of the United Kingdom
• List of generic forms in British place names
• List of places in the United Kingdom
• List of UK place names with royal patronage

This is a list of the origins of the names of counties of the United Kingdom. ... The study of place names is called toponymy; for a more detailed examination of this subject in relation to British place names please refer to British toponymy. ... List of cities in the United Kingdom List of towns in England List of burghs in Scotland List of towns in Wales List of towns in Northern Ireland Lists of places List of places in England List of places in Northern Ireland List of places in Scotland List of places... English Regis Bere Regis Bognor Regis Grafton Regis Houghton Regis Lyme Regis Melcombe Regis Rowley Regis Wyke Regis Royal Royal Berkshire Royal Leamington Spa Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Borough Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Former Royal Borough...

References

• A Dictionary of English Place-Names, A. D. Mills, Oxford, 1991.