Treesharing

Welsh Place Name Clues

February 23rd, 2011

In trying to find a Real Place® for Flambere-Mayre, Wales, I hit gold online that also may have also provided a good clue for deciphering other Welsh placenames.

Yes, it looks as if it must be a reference to Llanbryn-mair. It is not uncommon to see the “ll” represented as an “fl” (as in Shakespeare’s Henry V, where there is a character called “Flewellin”, which is obviously an attempt to reprsent the Welsh pronunciation at the start of Llywelyn). But the “bere” that follows is rather more unusual!

So Fl- may point to Ll- as you’re looking at Welsh places. -bere may be -bryn.