CLASSIC TEXTS
AND RECOMMENDED READING LIST

The website co-ordinator would welcome submissions on this topic.

Introduction: WJ Watson's "History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland".
(see also below)

Bibliography for the general reader.

Specialised Bibliography (long!) for advanced students and researchers.

Chris Gwinn's suggested reading list for Celtic Etymology

The following bibliography is intended for the general reader

J. Spittal & J. Field, A Reader's Guide to the Place-Names of the United Kingdom, 1990: a bibliography of publications (1920-89) on the place-names of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands.

General (Non-Scottish)
The following books or parts of books provide an excellent introduction to the subject from a non-Scottish angle, but with much that is relevant to Scotland:

K. Cameron, English Place Names, 1996: new edition of book which first appeared in 1961; unfortunately the important chapter ‘Place-Names and Archaeology' found in the earlier editions has been omitted from the new one.

M. Gelling, Signposts to the Past: Place-Names and the History of England, 1978: described by the author herself as a sequel to Cameron's book (latest edn. 1988).

M. Gelling, Place-Names in the Landscape, 1984: an analysis of topographical settlement-names i.e. names of settlements which derive from landscape features e.g. Longridge. Although about England, the points she makes in her Introduction regarding the importance and age of such names are very relevant for Scotland, too (paperback edn. 1993).

Gelling, Margaret, and Cole, Anne, 2000, The Landscape of Place-Names (Stamford).

O.J. Padel, Cornish Place-Names, 1988: the Introduction (pp.1-48) is a good summary of the methods and problems of place-name studies in general , as well as discussing Cornish place-names in particular.

G.R. Stewart, Names on the Globe, New York, Oxford University Press, 1975: detailed introduction to place-names and place-naming throughout the world, and throughout history. Refreshing non-European view (out of print).

Scottish

B.E. Crawford, 1987, Scandinavian Scotland: a good chapter on Scandinavian place-names in Scotland.

D.Dorward, 1995, Scotland's Place-names (Expanded Edition): non-academic introduction to the subject. Its lack of early forms of names limits its usefulness as a reference work.

W.F.H. Nicolaisen et al., 1970, Names of Towns and Cities in Britain, compiled by Margaret Gelling, W.F.H. Nicolaisen and Melville Richards, ed. W.F.H. Nicolaisen.

W.F.H. Nicolaisen, Scottish Place-Names, 1976: the best general introduction to the subject of Scottish place-names, and methodological approach. Highly recommended (slightly revised edn. with new bibliography, Edinburgh, 2001).

Place-Names on Maps of Scotland and Wales, Ordnance Survey: glossary of common Gaelic and Scandinavian place-name elements (latest edn. 1981).
Note that this has been completely superseded by a series of Ordnance Survey web-based publications for three of the languages which have made an important contribution to the place-names of Scotland: Gaelic, Scandinavian (Norse) and Scots. Each consists of an Introduction, which includes some basic grammar as it relates to place-name formation, and a Glossary of common place-name elements.
For Gaelic Place-Names (Introduction by Simon Taylor):
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freefun/didyouknow/placenames/gaelic.html
For Scandinavian Place-Names (Introduction by Anke-Beate Stahl):
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freefun/didyouknow/placenames/scan.html
For Scots Place-Names (Introduction by Simon Taylor):
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freefun/didyouknow/placenames/scots.html
There is a fourth such site concerning Welsh Place-Names:
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freefun/didyouknow/placenames/welsh.html
Although each of these four sites includes the word ‘Britain’ in its title, in the first three read ‘Scotland’ for ‘Britain’, in the fourth read ‘Wales’.

Taylor, S. (ed.), 1998, The Uses of Place-Names. Based on the conference of that name held in St Andrews, Feb. 1996. Looks at place-names as a tool for for various disciplines, including language (Scottish Gaelic - R. Ó Maolalaigh), history (Scotland - G.W.S. Barrow), historical geography (England - M. Gelling), archaeology (Wales - T. James, and Shetland - S.S. Hansen & D. Waugh), literature (Gaelic ballads - D. Meek) (Scottish Cultural Press, forthcoming) & environmental politics (Wales - H. James).

W.J. Watson, Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, 1926: for individual names, by far the best book ever to be written on Scottish place-names. Although not easy to use, it always repays the effort (latest edn. Birlinn 2004 with introduction, some addenda and corrigenda, and full Watson bibliography, by Simon Taylor).
*Online here Introduction , General Survey of Dumfries and Galloway, General Survey of Lothian,General Survey of Scotland North of Forth and General Survey of Ayrshire and Strathclyde *

W.J. Watson 2002, Scottish Place-Name Papers, London and Edinburgh, Steve Savage. Collection of papers by Watson, ed. Nicolaisen; an invaluable supplement to 'Celtic Place-Names of Scotland'.

Note also Index Of Celtic Elements In W.J. Watson's History Of The Celtic Place-Names Of Scotland compiled by Eric B. Basden, 1978 (published 1997). An essential companion to Watson's classic work on Scottish Place-Names, containing some 5,000 different entries (73 A4 sides) plus a seven-page Subject Index, with a preface by Simon Taylor, a brief User's Guide by Alan James, and a note on Eric Basden by his son, Nicholas Basden.
Copies are available from the Scottish Place-Name Society, price £7 including p. & p.

Note also Maggie Scott, 2003. 'Scottish Place-Names', in John Corbett et al. (eds.),The Edinburgh Companion to Scots, pp.17-30. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR 'SCOTTISH TOPONYMICS'
(designed by Simon Taylor to accompany various teaching modules at the Universities of St Andrews and Glasgow; revised and expanded by Simon Taylor, early 2011
 
Please contact the webmaster if you think there are any serious omissions to this list)

Index

MAIN WORKS

W.F.H. Nicolaisen, Scottish Place-Names, 1976: the best general introduction to the subject of Scottish place-names, and methodological approach. Highly recommended (slightly revised edn. with new bibliography, Edinburgh, 2001).

Taylor, S, 1998 (ed.), The Uses of Place-Names (Edinburgh): looks at place-names as a tool for various disciplines, including language (Scottish Gaelic - R. Ó Maolalaigh), history (Scotland - G.W.S. Barrow), historical geography (England - M. Gelling), archaeology (Wales - T. James, and Shetland - S.S. Hansen & D. Waugh), literature (Gaelic ballads - D. Meek) & environmental politics (Wales - H. James); general introduction (Simon Taylor).

The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland (Edinburgh and London; reprinted several times, most recently Edinburgh (Birlinn) 2004, with new Introduction, corrigenda, some addenda and a full W. J. Watson bibliography by Simon Taylor): the bible of Celtic place-name studies in Scotland, unsurpassed as a reference work, it also has important chapters on saints, church terms, river names, etc.
*Online here Introduction , General Survey of Dumfries and Galloway, General Survey of Lothian,General Survey of Scotland North of Forth and General Survey of Ayrshire and Strathclyde *
Helpful to use with it is:
Basden, E., 1997, Index of Celtic Elements in Professor W.J. Watson's The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland (1926) together with an Index of Subjects (compiled 1978, published by the Scottish Place-Name Society, Edinburgh).

Watson W.J. 2002, Scottish Place-Name Papers (London and Edinburgh, Steve Savage). Ed. Nicolaisen.

Good general introductions are the sections on place-names in:
Atlas of Scottish History to 1707, edd. Peter McNeill and Hector MacQueen (1996) [also its predecessor, An Historical Atlas of Scotland, c.400-c.1600, edd. P. McNeill and R. Nicholson (1975)].
And especially
The Companion to Gaelic Scotland, ed. D.S. Thomson (rev. ed. Glasgow 1994) under 'place-names': pp.226-36.

GAZETEERS
Ordnance Survey Landranger Gazetteer - all names on the O.S. Landranger (1:50,000 or 2 cm one km) maps of Britain.
Ordnance Survey Pathfinder Gazetteer - all names on the O.S. Pathfinder (1:25,000) maps of Scotland; compiled by Robin Hooker.

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Note also:
Black, G.F., 1946, The Surnames of Scotland (New York; reprinted 1993, Edinburgh). An excellent survey of Scottish surnames, but also includes early forenames, and much of relevance to place-names, including surnames derived from places, and personal names contained in early place-names.
Ekwall, E., 1960, Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, fourth edition.
Nicolaisen, W.F.H., et al., 1970, The Names of Towns and Cities in Britain, compiled by Margaret Gelling, W.F.H. Nicolaisen & Melville Richards, ed. W.F.H. Nicolaisen.
Place-Names on Maps of Scotland and Wales, Ordnance Survey: glossary of common Gaelic and Scandinavian place-name elements (latest edn. 1981, price £5.70).

Warning: Most of the more popular guides and dictionaries are written on the basis of unsound methodology and information, and are best avoided. A problematic example is J.B. Johnston, Place-Names of Scotland (1934). It is often seriously off the mark, especially when dealing with etymologies, but it does contain useful early forms of names (unfortunately not usually sourced).

Bibliography:
Spittall, J. & Field, J. 1990, A Reader's Guide to the Place-Names of the United Kingdom (1920-89) (Stamford): a bibliography of publications (1920-89) on the place-names of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands.

GENERAL PLACE-NAME STUDIES
The following books or parts of books provide an excellent introduction to the subject from a non-Scottish angle, but with much that is relevant to Scotland:

Cameron, K., 1996, English Place Names: new edition of book which first appeared in 1961; unfortunately the important chapter 'Place-Names and Archaeology' found in the earlier editions has been omitted from the new one (paperback, £17.99).
Flanagan, D. and Flanagan, L. 1994 Irish Place Names (Dublin).
Gelling, M., 1984, Place-Names in the Landscape (London) an analysis of topographical settlement-names i.e. names of settlements which derive from landscape features e.g. Longridge. Although about England, the points she makes in her Introduction regarding the importance and age of such names are also very relevant for Scotland (paperback edn. 1993, £12.99).
Gelling, M., 1988, Signposts to the Past: Place-Names and the History of England (1st edn. 1978; 2nd edn. Chichester): described by the author herself as a sequel to Cameron's book (latest edn. £12.95).
Gelling, Margaret, and Cole, Anne, 2000, The Landscape of Place-Names (Stamford).
Owen, Hywel Wyn, and Morgan, Richard, 2007, Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales (Llandysul).
Padel, O. J., 1988, Cornish Place-Names (Penzance): the Introduction (pp.1-48) is a good summary of the methods and problems of place-name studies in general, as well as discussing Cornish place-names in particular (£5.95)..

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THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL STUDIES
Cox, R. A. V., 1989, 'Questioning the value and validity of the term 'hybrid' in Hebridean place-name study', Nomina 12, 1-9.
Cox, R. A. V., 1991, 'Allt Loch Dhaile Beaga: Place-name Study in the West of Scotland', Nomina 14 (1990-91), 83-96.
Hough, Carole, 2009, ‘The Role of Onomastics in Historical Linguistics’, The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 3, 29–46.
Mac Giolla Easpaig, D. 1981, 'Noun + Noun Compounds in Irish Placenames', Etudes Celtiques 18, 151-63.
Nicolaisen, W.F.H., 1961 'Notes on Scottish Place-names: 16. The Interpretation of Name-changes', Scottish Studies 5, 85-96.
Nicolaisen, W.F.H., 1975 'Place-Names in Bilingual Communities', Names 23, 167-74.
Nicolaisen, W. F. H., 1989 'Place-Name Maps - How Reliable Are They?' Studia Onomastica (Festskrift til Thorsten Andersson) edd. L. Peterson and S. Strandberg (Stockholm), 261-68.
Stewart, G. R., 1975 Names on the Globe, (New York, Oxford University Press): detailed introduction to place-names and place-naming throughout the world, and throughout history. Refreshing non-European view (out of print).
Taylor, S. 1997, 'Generic-Element Variation, with Special Reference to Eastern Scotland', Nomina 20, 5-22. [important for the discussion of elements such as pett and baile.]
Toner, G., 1999, 'The definite article in Irish place-names', Nomina 22, 5-24.

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LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE CONTACT IN SCOTLAND

CELTIC (general)
Isaac, Graham R., 2005, 'Scotland', in de Hoz, J., Lujan, E.R., Sims-Williams, P. (eds), 2005 New approaches to Celtic Place-Names in Ptolemy's Geography (Madrid), 189-214

Surveys: Watson CPNS, ch. XI 'British names' and ch. XII 'British-Gaelic names'.
Nicolaisen, SPN, ch. 8 'P-Celtic names: Pictish and Cumbric'
Jackson in Thomson, Companion to Gaelic Scotland, under 'Place-names, British and Pictish'.
Forsyth, K., 1997, Language in Pictland (Utrecht) [available on-line at http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/2081/01/languagepictland.pdf]
Koch, John T., 1983, 'The Loss of Final Syllables and Loss of Declension in Brittonic', Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 30, 201-33.
Jackson, K.H., 1955, 'The Pictish Language' in The Problem of the Picts, ed. F.T. Wainwright (reprinted Perth, 1980).
Nicolaisen, W. F. H., 1996, The Picts and their Place Names (Groam House Museum lecture publications, Rosemarkie).
Taylor, Simon, 2011, ‘Pictish place-names revisited’, in Pictish Progress: New Studies on Northern Britain in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Stephen T. Driscoll, Jane Geddes and Mark A. Hall (Leiden and Boston [Brill]), 67-118. [Published November 2010.]

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PICTISH
Forsyth, K., 1997, Language in Pictland (Utrecht) [available on-line at http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/2081/01/languagepictland.pdf]
Jackson, K.H., 1955, 'The Pictish Language' in The Problem of the Picts, ed. F.T. Wainwright (reprinted Perth, 1980).
Nicolaisen, W. F. H., 1996, The Picts and their Place Names (Groam House Museum lecture publications, Rosemarkie).
Taylor, Simon, 2011, ‘Pictish place-names revisited’, in Pictish Progress: New Studies on Northern Britain in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Stephen T. Driscoll, Jane Geddes and Mark A. Hall (Leiden and Boston [Brill]), 67-118.

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BRITISH (=Cumbric/Welsh)
Surveys: Watson CPNS, ch. XI 'British names' and ch. XII 'British-Gaelic names'.
Note: Andrew Breeze has written about several British place-names in short articles in a range of journals, including Innes Review, Northern History, Scottish Language and Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. [you can download a list of Andrew Breeze’s publications from http://www.unav.es/linguis/AndrewBreeze/]

Fox, Bethany, 2007, ‘The P-Celtic Place-Names of North-East England and South-East Scotland’, The Heroic Age (An on-line Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe) 10 http://www.mun.ca/mst/heroicage/issues/10/fox.html
Hough, Carole, 2001, 'P-Celtic tref in Scottish Place-Names', Notes and Queries 48, No.3, September 2001, 213-15.
Jackson in Thomson, Companion to Gaelic Scotland, under 'Place-names, British and Pictish'.
Jackson, K.H., 1953 Language and History in Early Britain (Edinburgh).
Jackson, K.H., 1955 'The Britons in Southern Scotland', Antiquity 29, 77-88.
Jackson, K.H., 1963 'Angles and Britons in Northumbria and Cumbria', in Angles and Britons: O'Donnell Lectures (Cardiff), 60-84.
James, Alan BLITON (Brittonic Language in the Old North) at this web site.
Koch, John T., 1983, 'The Loss of Final Syllables and Loss of Declension in Brittonic', Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 30, 201-33.
Nicolaisen, SPN, ch. 8 'P-Celtic names: Pictish and Cumbric'

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GAELIC
Surveys: Watson CPNS, ch. XII 'British-Gaelic names' and ch. XIII 'Some general terms'.
Nicolaisen, SPN, ch. 7 'Gaelic names'
In Thomson, Companion to Gaelic Scotland: MacQueen 'Place-names, Gaelic, in Galloway and Ayrshire'; Jackson, 'Place-names, Gaelic, in Pictland', Nicolaisen, 'Place-names, Gaelic, in Scotland'.
A useful listing of Gaelic names and terms is in
MacAulay, D. 1971-2 'Studying the place names of Bernera', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 47, 316-18: basic elements; 318-29: examples of modifying elements, stucture and usage of Gaelic place-names.
Also on Ordnance Survey website, Gaelic Place-Names

Barrow, G.W.S., 1989, 'The Lost Gàidhealtachd', in Alba agus a' Ghàidhlig: Gaelic and Scotland, ed. W.Gillies, 67-88 [also in Barrow, G.W.S. 1992, Scotland and its Neighbours in the Middle Ages (London), 105-26]. Important material relating to Gaelic place-names in Scotland.
MacBain, A., 1911, An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language (reprinted by Gairm Publications 1982).
Nicolaisen, W.F.H., 1970 'Gaelic Place-names in Southern Scotland', Studia Celtica 5, 15-35.
Ó Maolalaigh, R. 1998 'Place-names as a resource for the historical linguist', in Taylor, Uses of Place-Names, 12-53.
Taylor, S., 1996/7 'Ainmean Gàidhlig air a'Ghalldachd Gaelic names in the Scottish Lowlands', Cothrom 10, 17-20. [Pictish and Gaelic interaction, as evidenced in place-names]
Taylor, S., 1997 'Gàidhlig an Dùthchas nan Gall/Gaelic in Lowland Heritage', Cothrom 11, 14-16. [Gaelic and Scots interaction, as evidenced in place-names]

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NORSE
Surveys: Nicolaisen, SPN, ch.6 'Scandinavian names'
Oftedal in Thomson, Companion to Gaelic Scotland, under 'Place-names, Norse'.
A very useful listing of common Norse names and terms is in
MacAulay, D. 1971-2 'Studying the place names of Bernera', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 47, 329-30: basic elements; 330-6: examples of modifying elements, stucture and usage of Norse place-names.
See also on Ordnance Survey web-site, Scandinavian Place-Names

Crawford, B. E., 1987, Scandinavian Scotland (Leicester)
Crawford, B.E. 1995 (ed.), Scandinavian Settlement in Northern Britain.
Crawford, Barbara E. and Taylor, Simon 2003, 'The Southern Frontier of Norse Settlement in North Scotland: Place-Names and History', Northern Scotland 23, 1-76.
Fellows-Jensen, G. 1984, 'Viking Settlement in the Northern and Western Isles', in The Northern and Western Isles in the Viking World, eds A. Fenton & H. Pálsson, 148-68.
Fellows-Jensen, G., 1990, 'Scandinavians in Southern Scotland?' Nomina 13 (1989-90), 41-60.
Gammeltoft, Peder, 2006, ‘Scandinavian influence on Hebridean island names’, in Names through the Looking Glass: Festschrift in Honour of Gillian Fellows-Jensen, edd. P. Gammeltoft & B. Jørgenson (C. A. Reitzels Forlag A/S, Copenhagen), 53-84.
Gammeltoft, Peder, 2007, ‘Scandinavian Naming-Systems in the Hebrides – A way of Understanding how the Scandinavians were in Contact with Gaels and Picts?’, in West Over Sea: Studies in Scandinavian Sea-Borne Expansion and Settlement before 1300, edd. B. Ballin Smith, S. Taylor and G. Williams (Brill: Leiden and Boston), 479-95.
Graham-Campbell, James, 2006, ‘Some reflections on the distribution and significance of Norse place-names in northern Scotland’, in Names through the Looking Glass: Festschrift in Honour of Gillian Fellows-Jensen, edd. P. Gammeltoft & B. Jørgenson (C. A. Reitzels Forlag A/S, Copenhagen), 94-118.
Taylor, .S., 1995, 'The Scandinavians in Fife and Kinross: the Onomastic Evidence', in Scandinavian Settlement in Northern Britain, ed. B.E. Crawford (London), 141-67.

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OLD ENGLISH/ANGLO-SAXON
Surveys: Nicolaisen, SPN, ch. 5 'Early English names'. To be read in conjunction with Cameron English Place Names (1996 Edition), c. 5, which summarises the new thinking on the chronology of early Anglo-Saxon place-names in England.
Brooke, D., 1991, 'The Northumbrian settlements in Galloway and Carrick: an historical assessment', PSAS 121, 295-327.
[See REGIONAL STUDIES / Galloway below for more details].
Parsons, D., Styles, T., with Hough, C. edd., , The Vocabulary of English Place-Names (A - BOX), Centre for English Name Studies, Nottingham
Parsons, D., and Styles, T., edd., 2000, The Vocabulary of English Place-Names (BRACE - CÆSTER), Centre for English Name Studies, Nottingham.
Smith, A.H., 1956 (reprinted 1970), English Place-Name Elements, 2 vols., English Place-Name Society vols.25-6.

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SCOTS (see also under GAELIC above)
For a useful listing of common Scots elements and place-names, see Ordnance Survey website, Scots Place-Names
Murison, D.D. 1974, 'Linguistic relationships in medieval Scotland', in The Scottish Tradition, ed. G.W.S. Barrow, 71-83 (Edinburgh).
Scott, Margaret, 2004, 'Uses of Scottish place-names in historical dictionaries', in New Perspectives on English Historical Linguistics. Selected papers from 12 ICEHL., Glasgow, 21-26 August 2002. Vol II: Lexis and Transmission, edited by C. Kay, C. Hough and I. Wotherspoon (Amsterdam, John Benjamins), 213-24.

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HYDRONYMS
King, Jacob, 2005, '"Lochy" names and Adomnan's Nigra Dea', Nomina 28, 69-91.
King, Jacob, 2007, ‘Endrick and Lunan’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies, 150-56.

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LANGUAGE CHANGE and CONTACT
Barrow, G.W.S., 1980, The Anglo-Norman Era (Oxford) [especially chapter 'The pattern of settlement']
Broun, D., 1998, 'Gaelic literacy in eastern Scotland, 1124-1249', in Literacy in Medieval Celtic Societies, ed. Huw Pryce (Cambridge), 183-201.
Gammeltoft, Peder, 2004, 'Scandinavian-Gaelic contacts. Can place-names and place-name elements be used as a source for contact-linguistic research?'. North-Western European Language Evolution, 44, 51-90.
Nicolaisen, W.F.H., 1988 'Gaelic and Scots 1300-1600: some place-name evidence', in D.S. Thomson (ed.), Gaelic and Scots in Harmony (Glasgow) 20-35.
Taylor, S., 1994 'Babbet and Bridin Pudding or Polyglot Fife in the Middle Ages', Nomina 17, 99-118.

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SOCIETY, SETTLEMENT and ENVIRONMENT
[individual elements and subjects discussed in detail are given in square brackets at end of entry]
Barrow, G.W.S. 1973 The Kingdom of the Scots (London), esp. chapter 'Rural settlement in central and eastern Scotland' (Second edition Edinburgh, 2003).
Barrow, G.W.S. 1981 'Popular Courts in Early Medieval Scotland: Some Place-Name Evidence', Scottish Studies 25 (1981), 1-24 (reprinted in Barrow, Scotland and its Neighbours in the Middle Ages) [cuthil and errocht-].
Barrow, G.W.S., 1984, 'Land Routes: The Medieval Evidence', Loads and Roads in Scotland and Beyond, ed. A.Fenton & G.Stell, 49-66 [also in Barrow, G.W.S. 1992, Scotland and its Neighbours in the Middle Ages (London), 201-16, entitled simply 'Land Routes']. [Place-names and medieval travel.]
Barrow, G.W.S. 1998 'The uses of place-names and Scottish history: pointers and pitfalls', in Taylor, Uses of Place-Names, 54-74.
Ewart, G., 1996 'Inchaffray Abbey, Perth and Kinross: excavation and research, 1987', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 126, 469-517.
Fraser, I. A., 1987 'Pictish Place-names: Some Toponymic Evidence', in A. Small (ed), The Picts: a new look at old problems (Dundee), 68-71. [environmental evidence from place-names]
Fraser, I. A., 1990-2 'The agricultural element in Gaelic place-names', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 57, 203-23. [agriculture]
Fraser, I. A., 1992-4 'The agricultural element in Gaelic place-names, Part II', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 58, 223-46. [agriculture]
Kelly, F., 1997, Early Irish Farming (Early Irish Law Series vol.IV) (Dublin). [agriculture]
Jones, G.R.J., 1979 'Multiple Estates and Early Settlements', in P.H. Sawyer (ed), English Medieval Settlement, 9-34.
Taylor, S., 2006, ‘Place-names in the Historical Landscape: Changing Land Use in the Howe of Fife’, in Landscape and Environment (in Dark Age Scotland), ed. Alex Woolf (St Andrews), 75–90.
Watson, A., in Hall, M., Forsyth, K., Henderson, I., Scott, I., Trench-Jellicoe, R., Watson, A., 2000, 'Of makings and meanings: towards a cultural biography of the Crieff Burgh Cross [cross slab], Strathearn, Perthshire', Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal 6, 154-88 [A. Watson's section on place-names relating to the landscape and early lordship of Strowan parish, Perthshire, the place where the cross-slab was found, 169-74.]
Whittington, G. 1977 'Placenames and the Settlement Pattern of Dark Age Scotland', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 106, 99-110. [Pit-place-names and settlement]
Whittington, G. and Soulsby, J.A. 1968 'A Preliminary Report on an Investigation into Pit Place-names', Scottish Geographical Magazine 84, 117-25. [Pit-place-names and settlement]

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PLACE-NAMES AND THE CHURCH
Anderson, M.O. 1965 'Columba and other Irish saints in Scotland', Historical Studies 5, 26-36. [Saints and their dedications: discusses some methodological problems.]
Barrow, G.W.S., 1983, 'The Childhood of Scottish Christianity: a Note on Some Place-Name Evidence', Scottish Studies 27, 1-15.[eccles]
Barrow, G.W.S. 1998, 'Religion in Scotland on the eve of Christianity' in Forschungen zur Reichs-, Papst- und Landesgeschichte, edited by K. Borchardt and E. Bünz, Part 1 (Stuttgart), 25-32. [nemed].
Bowen, E.G. 1977 Saints, Seaways and Settlements in the Celtic Lands (rev. ed., Cardiff).
Butter, Rachel, 2007, ‘Cill-names and Saints in Argyll: a way towards understanding the early church in Dál Riata?’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.
Clancy, T. O., 1995, 'Annat in Scotland and the Origins of the Parish', Innes Review 46, 91-115. [annat]
Clancy, Thomas Owen, 2008, ‘Deer and the early church in North-Eastern Scotland’, in Studies on the Book of Deer, ed. K. Forsyth (Dublin), 363–97
Crawford, B.E., 2002 (ed.), The Papar in the North Atlantic: Environment and History. The Papar Project Volume 1. St Andrews Scottish Cultural Press (= St Johns House Papers No.10). [Several chapters relating to place-names]
Grant, Alison, 2004, 'A Reconsideration of the Kirk- Names in South-West Scotland', Northern Studies 38, 97-121.
MacDonald, A(idan), 1973, '"Annat" in Scotland: A Provisional Review', Scottish Studies 17, 135-46. [annat]
- 1977, 'Old Norse 'Papar' names in N. and W. Scotland', in Studies in Celtic Survival, ed. L. Laing, 107-11 (British Archaeological Reports, Oxford). [papa]
- 1977, 'On 'Papar' names in north and west Scotland', Northern Studies 9, 25-30. [papa]
- 1979, 'Gaelic Cill (Kil(l)-) in Scottish Place-Names', Bulletin of the Ulster Place-name Society, series 2, vol.2, 9-22. [Kil-]
MacKinlay, J.M., 1914 Ancient Church Dedications of Scotland: Non-Scriptural (Edinburgh). [A somewhat dated, but as yet unsurpassed and extremely useful, collection of data on dedications to saints. Poor on sources.]
MacQueen, J. 1956, 'Kirk- and Kil- in Galloway Place-Names', Archivum Linguisticum 8, 135-49. [Kil- and Kirk-]
MacQueen, J., 1973, 'The Gaelic Speakers of Galloway and Carrick', Scottish Studies 17, 17-33. [saints names in place-names]
Márkus, Gilbert, 2003, ‘Domhnach in Scotland’, Scottish Place-Name News 15 (Autumn), 4–5.
Márkus, Gilbert, 2008, ‘Saints and Boundaries: the pass of St Mocha and St Kessog’s Bell’, The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 2, 69-84.
Ó Muraíle, N. 1997 'The Columban onomastic legacy', in C. Bourke (ed.), Studies in the Cult of Saint Columba (Dublin) 1993-228. Listing of dedications to Columba and Adomnán, but some corrections should be noted, to be found in Taylor 1999.
Roger, J. 1997 'The formation of parishes in Perthshire', Records of the Scottish Chruch History Society 27.
Taylor, S., 1994 'Some early Scottish place-names and Queen Margaret', Scottish Language 13, 1-17.
Taylor, S., 1996 'Place-names and the early church in eastern Scotland', in B. Crawford (ed.), Scotland in Dark-Age Britain (St Andrews), 93-110. [Kil- and both]
Taylor, S., 1998, 'Place-names and the early church in Scotland', Records of The Scottish Church History Society 28, 1-22. [includes fairly comprehensive list of ecclesiastical place-name elements + bibliography]
Taylor, S., 1999, 'Seventh-century Iona abbots in Scottish place-names', in D. Broun and T. O. Clancy (edd.) Spes Scotorum Hope of the Scots (Edinburgh), 35-70.
Taylor, S, 2000, 'Columba east of Drumalban: some aspects of the cult of Columba in eastern Scotland', Innes Review 51 (2), 109-30.

return to index

INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS or NAME-TYPES (non ecclesiastical)
[See also Society, Settlement and Environment above]
Barrow, G.W.S., 1993, 'The Anglo-Scottish Border: Growth and Structure in the Middle Ages', in Grenzen und Grenzregionen..Borders and Border Regions, edd. W. Haubrichs and R. Schneider (Saarbrûcken), 197-212. [210-12 for discussion of close correlation between distribution of Ingliston and mottes]
Beveridge, E., 1923, The 'Abers' and 'Invers' of Scotland (Edinburgh) [aber and inver]
Cox, R. A. V., 1997, 'Modern Scottish Gaelic Reflexes of Two Pictish Words: *pett and *lannerc', Nomina 20, 47-58. [pett and lannerc]
Gammeltoft, P., 1998, 'Sowing the wind? Reaping the crop of bólstaðr', Northern Studies 33 (1998), 25-35. [bólstaðr]
MacDonald, A(idan), 1981, 'Dùn in Scotland', Bulletin of the Ulster Place-name Society, series 2, vol.3, 30-9. [dùn]
- 1982, 'Ràth in Scotland', Bulletin of the Ulster Place-name Society, series 2, vol. 4, 32-57. [rath]
- 1987, 'Lios in Scotland', Ainm (Journal of the Ulster Place-name Society), 2, 37-54. [lios]
McNiven, P., 2007, ‘The Gart-names of Clackmannanshire’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 1, 61-76. [gart]
Nicolaisen, W.F.H., 1965, 'Slew- and sliabh', Scottish Studies 9, 91-106. [Slew/Slieve/sliabh]
- 1967, 'Scottish Place-Names: 28. Old English wíc in Scottish Place-names', Scottish Studies 11, 75-84. [wick]
- 1968, 'The distribution of certain Gaelic mountain-names', TGSI (1967-68), 113-28 (with 6 distribution maps). [beinn, cnoc, druim, maol, meall, torr]
- 1969, 'Scottish Place-Names 32: Gaelic tulach and barr', Scottish Studies 13, 159-66. [tulach and barr]
O Máille, T.S., 1987, 'Place-Name Elements in -ar', Ainm 2, 27-36. [suffix -ar]
- 1990, 'Irish Place-Names in -as, -es, -os, -us', Ainm 4, 125-43. [suffixes --as, -es, -os, -us]
Price, L., 1963, 'A Note on the Use of the Word baile in Place-names [in Ireland]', Celtica 6, 119-26. [baile]
Taylor, S., 2002, 'The Element sliabh and the Rhinns of Galloway: or Place-Names and History: a Case Study', History Scotland vol.2 no.6 (Nov/Dec). 49-52.[sliabh]
- 2007, ‘Sliabh in Scottish Place-Names: its meaning and chronology’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 1, 99-136. [sliabh]
Toner, G., 2000, 'Settlement and settlement terms in medieval Ireland: ráth and lios', Ainm 8 (1998-2000), 1-40.
Watson, W.J. 1907, 'Innis in Place-Names', The Celtic Review 3, 239-42. [innis/inch]
Whittington, G. & Soulsby, J.A., 1968, 'A Preliminary Report on an Investigation into Pit Place-names', Scottish Geographical Magazine 84, 117-125. [pett/pit]
Whittington, G., 1975, 'Placenames and settlement pattern of dark-age Scotland', PSAS 106, 99-110. [pett/pit]
Winchester, A., 1986, 'The Distribution and Significance of 'Bordland' in Medieval Britain', Agricultural History Review 34, 129-39. [bo(a)rdland]

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REGIONAL STUDIES
There are books and pamphlets about the place-names of most areas of Scotland. Many of these are extremely untrustworthy and misleading, and some are quite frankly not worth the paper they are printed on. One such is J. Milne's Gaelic Place-Names of Edinburgh and the Lothians; another is H. Cameron Gillies, The Place-Names of Argyll, described by Ian Fraser as 'an eccentric curiosity'.
Here is a selection of some of the better, more trustworthy regional studies, as well as some excellent unpublished material. For more details of works published before 1989, see A Reader's Guide to the Place-Names of the United Kingdom, J. Spittal & J. Field, 1990.
Scotland North of Forth is surveyed by WJ Watson in CPNS (online here). For Watson's surveys of other parts of Scotland, see below.

Aberdeenshire
Alexander, W.M., 1952, The Place-Names of Aberdeenshire (Third Spalding Club).
Cox, Richard A. V., 2008, ‘The syntax of the place-names’, in Studies on the Book of Deer, ed. K. Forsyth (Dublin), 309–12.
Taylor, Simon, 2008, ‘The toponymic landscape of the Gaelic Notes in the Book of Deer’, in Studies on the Book of Deer, ed. K. Forsyth (Dublin), 275–308.
Watson, A. & Allan, E., 1984, The Place-Names of Upper Deeside (Aberdeen).

Angus
Dorward, D., 2001, The Glens of Angus: Names, Places, People (with illustrations by Colin Gibson) (Balgavies).
Nicolaisen W.F.H., 1968 'Place-Names of the Dundee Region', in Dundee and District, ed. S.J. Jones.
Will, C.P. 1963, Place names of northeast Angus (a study of the parishes of Edzell, Lethnot and Navar, and Lochlee; with notes from the Brechin area and elsewhere in or around the county) (Arbroath) [reprinted by the Scottish Place-Name Society, with an introduction by Simon Taylor, 1999
Orr, David G., 2008, Kirriemuir: Its Streets & Place Names (Kirriemuir) [see Scottish Place-Name News 26, Spring 2009.]

Argyllshire
Butter, Rachel, 2007, ‘Cill-names and Saints in Argyll: a way towards understanding the early church in Dál Riata?’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.
Caldwell, David, 2008, Islay: The Land of the Lordship (Edinburgh) [with much toponymic input from Alan Macniven; Macniven contributed Chapter 2 ‘Prehistory and Early History’; while Chapter 8, ‘Continuity and Change – Place-Names and Extents’ draws heavily on Macniven 2006 (‘The Norse in Islay: A Settlement Historical Case-Study for Medieval Scandinavian Activity in Western Maritime Scotland’, unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh); Appendix 1 is a useful compilation and examination of Islay surnames; while Appendix 2, entitled ‘Islay Lands, Recorded Prior to 1722’ is also drawn from Macniven 2006, giving suggested etymologies, as well as sources, but sadly no early forms]
Colville, Duncan and Martin, Angus, 2009, The Place-Names of the Parish of Southend, Kintyre Antiquarian & Natural History Society, Campbeltown. [First published 1938 by the Kintyre Antiquarian Society; original list compiled by Duncan Colville; this version revised and supplemented by Angus Martin.]
Fraser, I. A., 1984-6, 'The Place-Names of Argyll: an historical perspective', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 54, 174-207.
Macniven, Alan, 2006, 'The Norse in Islay: A Settlement Historical Case-Study for Medieval Scandinavian Activity in Western Maritime Scotland', unpublished PhD , University of Edinburgh.
Storrie, Margaret, 2009, ‘Settlement and Naming in the Southern Hebridean Isle of Islay’, in A Land that Lies Westward: Language and Culture in Islay and Argyll, ed. J. Derrick McClure, John M. Kirk and Margaret Storrie (John Donald, Edinburgh), 17–47.

Arran
Fraser, I. A., 1999, The Place-Names of Arran, The Arran Society of Glasgow, Glasgow.

Ayrshire
Survey in Watson, CPNS
For Carrick district of Ayrshire, see Galloway.
Ansell, Michael, 2008, ‘Carsphairn and Dalmellington Re-visited’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 2, 1–10.
Clancy, Thomas Owen, 2008, Two Ayrshire Place-names, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 2, 99–114 [Pulprestwic and Trearne]
Grant, Alison, 2005, ‘The Origin of the Ayrshire Bý Names’, in Cultural Contacts in the North Atlantic Region: The Evidence of Names, edd. Peder Gammeltoft, Carole Hough and Doreen Waugh [Shetland], 127–40.
Márkus, Gilbert, 2009, ‘Balinclog: A Lost Parish in Ayrshire’ Journal of Scottish Name Studies 3, 47–64.
Taylor, Simon, 2009, ‘Ayrshire Place-Names: a rich seam still to mine’, Ayrshire Notes 38 (Autumn 2009), 4–18 [with an attempt at a complete bibliography of articles on individual Ayrshire place-names].

Berwickshire
Johnston, J.B., 1940, The Place-Names of Berwickshire (The Place-Names of Scotland Series, No.1, published by the RSGS, Edinburgh).

Borders
Macdonald, J. S. M., 1992, The Place-Names of Roxburghshire (Hawick) [Hawick Archaeological Society, printed 1991, reprinted with short addendum 1992.]
Nicolaisen, W.F.H., 1964, 'Anglo-Saxons and Celts in the Scottish Border Counties', Scottish Studies 8, 141-71.
Proudfoot, E. and Aliaga-Kelly, C., 'Aspects of Settlement and Territorial Arrangements in South-east Scotland in the Late Prehistoric and Early Medieval Periods', Medieval Archaeology 41 (1997), 33-50 [heavy use of place-name evidence and several place-name distribution maps]
Williamson, M. G., 1942, 'The Non-Celtic Place-Names of the Scottish Border Counties', unpublished PhD , University of Edinburgh. Now available here.

Bute
Hannah, A., 2000, 'Bute farm names with personal name elements', Transactions of the Buteshire Natural History Society 25, 61-7.

Caithness
Waugh, D., 1993, 'Caithness: An Onomastic Frontier Zone', The Viking Age in Caithness, Orkney and the North Atlantic, eds. C. Batey, J. Jesch and C.D Morris (reprinted in paperback 1995).
Waugh, D., 1985, 'The Place-Names of 6 Parishes in Caithness, Scotland', unpublished PhD, University of Edinburgh, 1985 [Reay, Thurso, Olrig, Dunnet, Canisbay and Wick].
Waugh, Doreen, 2009, ‘Caithness: Another Dip in the Sweerag Well’, in Scandinavian Scotland – Twenty Years After, ed. Alex Woolf (St Andrews), 31–48.

Clackmannanshire
McNiven, Peter, 2007, ‘The Gart-names of Clackmannanshire’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 1, 61-76.
Taylor, Simon, 2004, 'Celtic Place-Names of Clackmannanshire', History Scotland vol.4 no.4 (July/August, 2004), 13-17.

Dumfriesshire see Galloway

Dunbartonshire
Taylor, Simon, 2006, ‘The Early History and Languages of West Dunbartonshire’, in Changing identities: ancient roots - the history of West Dunbartonshire from earliest times, ed. Ian Brown (Edinburgh University Press), 12–41.

East Lothian
Survey in Watson CPNS

Fife
Breeze, A., 1997, 'Etymological Notes on Kirkcaldy, jockteleg 'knife', kiaugh 'trouble', striffen 'membrane' and cow 'hobgoblin'', Scottish Language 16, 97-110 [Kirkcaldy 97-9]
Henery, R., and Taylor, S, 2007, ‘Pitmiclardie in Fife’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 1, 148–50.
Hough, Carole, 2002, 'Onomastic Evidence for an Anglo-Saxon Animal Name: OE *pur 'male lamb', English Studies 83 (no.5, November 2002) 337-90 [includes discussion of Pusk, Leuchars, FIF].
Márkus, Gilbert, 2007, ‘Gaelic under Pressure: a 13th-century charter from East Fife’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 1, 77-98.
Márkus, Gilbert, 2010, Place-Names, Protein and Power: The meaning of the Falkland Trenches (Falkland Centre for Stewardship, Falkland).
Taylor, S., 1994 'Some Early Scottish Place-Names and Queen Margaret', Scottish Language 13, 1-17.
Taylor, S., 1994 'Babbet and Bridin Pudding or Polyglot Fife in the Middle Ages', Nomina 17, 99-118.
Taylor, S., 1995, 'Settlement-Names in Fife': deals with west Fife and the medieval parish of St Andrews & St Leonards. Unpublished PhD., University of Edinburgh, 1995 (copy also at St Andrews University).
Taylor, S., and Henderson, J. Michael, 1998, 'The medieval marches of Wester Kinnear, Kilmany Parish, Fife', Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal 4, 232-47.
Taylor, S., 2000 'Place-Names of Fife', in The Fife Book ed. D. Omand (Edinburgh), 205-20.
Taylor, Simon, 2008, ‘Pilkembare and Pluck the Craw: verbal place-names in Scotland’, in A Commodity of Good Names: Essays in Honour of Margaret Gelling, ed. O. J. Padel and David N. Parsons (Donington), 274–85.
Taylor, Simon, 2009, ‘The Trenches at Falkland, Fife: a Legacy of Royal Deer-Management?’, in Carmarthenshire & Beyond: Studies in History and Archaeology in Memory of Terry James, ed. Heather James and Patricia Moore (Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society, Carmarthen), 235–44.
Taylor, S., (with Gilbert Markus) 2006, Place-Names of Fife Vol.1 (West Fife between Leven and Forth) (Donnington 2006) [volume 1 of a 5-volume series].
Taylor, Simon, with Gilbert Márkus, 2008, Place-Names of Fife Vol. 2 (Central Fife between Leven and Eden) (Donington) [volume 2 of a 5 volume series].
Taylor, Simon (with Gilbert Márkus), 2009, Place-Names of Fife Vol. 3 (St Andrews and the East Neuk) (Donington) [5-volume series].
Taylor, Simon (with Gilbert Márkus), 2010, Place-Names of Fife Vol. 4 (North Fife between Eden and Tay) (Donington) [5-volume series].
Whittington, G., 1991, 'Place-Names in Northern Fife', Nomina 13, 13-23.

Galloway
Survey in Watson, CPNS
Brooke, D. 1983 'Kirk-Compound Place-Names in Galloway and Carrick', Transactions of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 58, 56-71.
Brooke, D., 1991, 'The Northumbrian settlements in Galloway and Carrick: an historical assessment', PSAS 121, 295-327.
[A stimulating and well-argued attempt to assess the extent and types of Northumbrian settlement in south-west Scotland in the early medieval period, using place-names, church dedications and supportive historical, topographical and archaeological evidence. It includes a very useful list of Galloway settlement-names (with early forms and analysis) deriving from Northumbrian, Cumbric, Old Norse and Gaelic.]
Fellows-Jensen, G., 1991, 'Scandinavians in Dumfriesshire and Galloway: The Place-Name Evidence', in Galloway: Land and Lordship, eds. R.D. Oram and G.P. Stell, 77-95.
Findlater, Alex Maxwell, 2008, ‘Another Look at Bagimond’, Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 82, 59-75 [Bagimond in Dumfries and Galloway]
MacQueen, J., 1956, 'Kirk- and Kil- in Galloway Place-Names', Archivum Linguisticum 8, 135-49.
MacQueen, J., 1973, 'The Gaelic Speakers of Galloway and Carrick', Scottish Studies 17, 17-33. [saints names in place-names]
MacQueen, J., 2002, Place-Names in the Rhinns of Galloway and Luce Valley. Stranraer and District Local History Trust.
MacQueen, John, 2008, Place-Names of the Wigtownshire Moors and Machars. Stranraer and District Local History Trust, Stranraer [covering the parishes of Glasserton, Kirkcowan, Kirkinner, Mochrum, Penninghame, Sorbie and Wigtown]
Maxwell, H.E., 1930, The Place Names of Galloway (Glasgow, reprinted 1991, Wigtown)
[to handle with care: it has the best list of names, but some wild etymologies].

Glasgow
Taylor, S., 2007, ‘Gaelic in Glasgow: the Onomastic Evidence’, in Glasgow: Baile Mòr nan Gàidheal/City of the Gaels, ed. Sheila M. Kidd (Glasgow), 1-19.

Inverness-shire (excluding Western Isles)
Crawford, Barbara E. and Taylor, Simon 2003, 'The Southern Frontier of Norse Settlement in North Scotland: Place-Names and History', Northern Scotland 23, 1-76.
Morgan, P., 1999, Rum: Island Place-Names/Rùm: Ainmean Àite an Eilein (with separate map) (Scottish Natural Heritage, Rum)
Rixson, D., 1999, Knoydart: A History (Birlinn, Edinburgh) [section on place-names with early forms + close study of land-units.]

Kincardineshire
King, Jacob, 2009, ‘Haberberui: An Aberration?’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 3, 127-34. [On a problematic early form of Inverbervie KCD.]

Kinross-shire
Taylor, .S., 1995, 'The Scandinavians in Fife and Kinross: the Onomastic Evidence', in Scandinavian Settlement in Northern Britain, ed. B.E. Crawford (London), 141-67.
Taylor, Simon, 2007, ‘The Rock of the Irishmen: an early place-name tale from Fife and Kinross’, in West Over Sea: Studies in Scandinavian Sea-Borne Expansion and Settlement before 1300, edd. B. Ballin Smith, S. Taylor and G. Williams (Brill: Leiden and Boston), 497–514.

Kirkcudbrightshire
Ansell, Michael, 2008, ‘Carsphairn and Dalmellington Re-visited’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 2, 1–10.

Lanarkshire (excluding Glasgow)
Breeze, Andrew, 2006, ‘The Names of Blantyre, Carluke, and Carnwath, near Glasgow’, Scottish Studies 34 (2000-2006), 1-4.
Drummond, P., 1987, Placenames of The Monklands (Monklands).
Grant, Alexander, 2007, ‘Lordship and Society in Twelfth-Century Clydesdale’, in Power and Identity in the Middle Ages. Essays in Memory of Rees Davies, ed. Huw Pryce and John Watts (Oxford), 98–138. [section on Lesmahagow place-names]
McCabe, S., 1992, An Etymological Guide to the Placenames of the Monklands (Nivelles, Belgium).
Miller, J. P., 1932 ‘Place-Names of Lanarkshire’ (type-script in possession of Scottish Place-Name Survey, School of Scottish Studies, Edinburgh comprising extracts from the Hamilton Advertiser 1931-32; an alphabetical list of many Lanarkshire place-names with their early forms).
Taylor, Simon, 2009, ‘Place-names of Lesmahagow’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 3, 65–106.

Midlothian
Survey in Watson CPNS.
Barrow, G. W. S., 1959, 'Treverlen, Duddingston and Arthur's Seat', Book of the Old Edinburgh Club 30, 1-9.
Dixon, N., 1947, 'Place-Names of Midlothian', unpublished PhD , University of Edinburgh. [now available on this web site]

The Ochils
Watson, A., 1995, The Ochils, Placenames, History, Tradition, Perth and Kinross District Libraries (£10.95).

Orkney
Crawford, Barbara E., 2006, ‘Houseby, Harray and Knarston in the West Mainland of Orkney. Toponymic indicators of administrative authority?’, in Names through the Looking Glass: Festschrift in Honour of Gillian Fellows-Jensen, edd. P. Gammeltoft & B. Jørgenson (C. A. Reitzels Forlag A/S, Copenhagen), 21-44.
Marwick, H. 1952, Orkney Farm-Names, (Kirkwall).
Marwick, H., 1970, The Place-Names of Birsay.
Sandnes, Berit, 2010, From Starafjall to Starling Hill: an investigation of the formation and development of Old Norse place-names in Orkney, e-book published by The Scottish Place-Name Society, available on-line (pdf file). [It includes an in-depth study of Norse place-names of the parishes of Evie, Rendall and Firth on the west mainland of Orkney; see also S. Taylor's review in Northern Studies 39 (2005), 118-24; first published in Norwegian as Fra Starafjall til Starling Hill: Dannelse og utvikling av norrone stednavn pa Orknoyene, NTNU Trondheim, Norway, 2003.]
Thomson, William P. L., 2007, ‘The Orkney Papar-names’, in West Over Sea: Studies in Scandinavian Sea-Borne Expansion and Settlement before 1300, edd. B. Ballin Smith, S. Taylor and G. Williams (Brill: Leiden and Boston), 515-37.
Thomson, William P. L., 2008, Orkney Land and People (The Orcadian Limited, Kirkwall Press) [2 chapters specifically about place-names: Chapter 1: Orkney Farm-names; Chapter 13: The Place-names of the Crofter Pioneer Fringe]

Peeblesshire
James, Alan G., 2009, ‘A Note on the Place-name Dreva, Stobo, Peeblesshire’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 3, 121-6.

Perthshire
Fraser, Ian A., 1999, 'Place-Names [of Perthshire]', in D Omand (ed.) The Perthshire Book (Edinburgh), 199-210.
Kerr, John., 1990, 'Along an Atholl Boundary', Nomina vol.13 pp.73-89 [also by same author: 1992-4 'An Atholl boundary', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 58, 136-70.]
Taylor, Simon, 2002, 'Stormont, the name and the place', History Scotland vol.2 no.5 (September/October), 44-7.
Taylor, Simon, 2005, 'The Abernethy Foundation Account & its Place-Names', History Scotland vol. 5 no. 4 (July/August), 14-16.
Watson, W.J. 1928, 'The Place-Names of Breadalbane', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 34 (1927-28), 248-79.
Watson, W.J. 1930, 'Place-Names of Perthshire: The Lyon Basin', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 35, 277-96 [printed in 1939].
Watson, Angus, 2002, 'Place-Names, Land and Lordship in the Medieval Earldom of Strathearn', unpublished Ph.D., University of St Andrews.

Ross and Cromarty
Crawford, B. E. 1995, Earl & Mormaer; Norse-Pictish Relationships in Northern Scotland, 1995 (Groam House Museum lecture publications, Rosemarkie).
Fraser, I. A., 1984, 'The Place-Names of Ross and Cromarty', in The Ross and Cromarty Book, ed. D. Omand, 219-29.
Watson, W. J., 1904, Place-Names of Ross and Cromarty (reprinted in paperback 1996 by Highland Heritage Books, price £10.99).
Wentworth, R.G., 1998, Place-Names of Loch Maree Islands National Nature Reserve. Scottish Natural Heritage (?second edition or reprint 1999b).
Wentworth, R.G., 1999, Gaelic Place-Names of Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve. Scottish Natural Heritage.

Roxburghshire
See Borders.

Shetland
Stewart, J., 1987, Shetland Place-Names.
Waugh, D., 2005, ‘From Hermaness to Dunrossness: some Shetland ness-names’, in Viking and Norse in the North Atlantic. Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Viking Congress, Tórshavn, 19–30 July 2001, eds. A. Mortensen and S. V. Arge, Annales Societatis Scientiarum Færoensis, Supplementum 44 (Tórshavn: Faroese Academy of Sciences), 250-56.
Waugh, D., 2006, ‘The –by/-bie names of Shetland’, in Names through the Looking Glass: Festschrift in Honour of Gillian Fellows-Jensen, edd. P. Gammeltoft & B. Jørgenson (C. A. Reitzels Forlag A/S, Copenhagen), 298-321.
Waugh, Doreen, 2007, ‘From the 'banks-gaet' to the 'hill-grind': Norn and Scots in the place-names of Shetland’, in Cavill and Broderick (eds), 165-83. [Cavill, P., and G. Broderick (eds), 2007, Language Contact in the Place-Names of Britain and Ireland, EPNS Extra Series 3 (Nottingham: English  Place-Name Society)]

The Sidlaws
Dorward, David, 2004, The Sidlaw Hills (with illustrations by Colin Gibson) (Balgavies, Angus).

Stirlingshire
Durkan, J., 1999, 'The place-name Balmaha', Innes Review 50, 88.
Reid, John, 2009, The Place Names of Falkirk and East Stirlingshire (Falkirk Local History Society: Falkirk).

Strathspey
Barrow, G.W.S. 1988 & 1989 'Badenoch and Strathspey, 1130-1312': 1. 'Secular and political', Northern Scotland 8; 2: 'Church', Northern Scotland 9, 1-16.
MacGregor, N. 1992-4 'Gaelic place-names in Strathspey', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 58, 299-370.

Sutherland
Watson, W.J., 1906, 'Some Sutherland names of places', The Celtic Review 2, 232-42, 360-8.
Waugh, D, 2000, 'A Scatter of Norse Names in Strathnaver', in The Province of Strathnaver, ed John R. Baldwin, 13-24.

Western Isles
Cox, Richard A. V., 2002, The Gaelic Place-Names of Carloway, Isle of Lewis: Their Structure and Significance (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies).
Fellows-Jensen, G., 1984, 'Viking Settlement in the Northern and Western Isles', in The Northern and Western Isles in the Viking World, eds A. Fenton & H. Pálsson (Edinburgh), 148-68.
Fraser, I. A., 1976-8 'Gaelic and Norse elements in coastal place names in the Western Isles', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 50, 237-55.
Jennings, A., 1994, 'An Historical Study of the Gael and Norse in Western Scotland from c.795 to c.1000', unpublished PhD , University of Edinburgh.
MacAulay, D., 1971-2 'Studying the place names of Bernera', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 47, 313-37.
McKillop, D. (for John Ferguson), 1982-4 'The place-names of Bernera', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 53, 115-64. Read after and alongside D. MacAulay's 1971 article, this is instructive - the work of an amateur collector, there is much of folklore interest here, but linguistically and methodologically it has many problems. Comparing this with MacAulay's article will give some insight into problems of methodology.
McKillop, D. 1988-90 'Rocks, shoals and islands in the Sounds of Harris and Uist and around the Island of Berneray', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 56, 428-502.
Stahl, Anke Beate, 1999, 'Place-Names of Barra in the Outer Hebrides', unpublished Ph.D., University of Edinburgh [covers place-names in the whole Barra island group, i.e. all islands from Barra southwards].

West Lothian
Survey in Watson, CPNS, ch. V.
MacDonald, A., 1941, The Place-Names of West Lothian (Edinburgh and London).
Wilkinson, J.G. 1992, West Lothian Place-Names (Harburn), out-of-print, now available online
http://www.cyberscotia.com/west-lothian-place-names

Wigtownshire
MacQueen, John, 2002, Place-Names in the Rhinns of Galloway and Luce Valley, Stranraer and District Local History Trust. See under Galloway.
MacQueen, John, 2008, Place-Names of the Wigtownshire Moors and Machars, Stranraer and District Local History Trust, Stranraer [covering the parishes of Glasserton, Kirkcowan, Kirkinner, Mochrum, Penninghame, Sorbie and Wigtown].

return to index

SOME IMPORTANT SOURCES FOR EARLY FORMS OF SCOTTISH PLACE-NAMES

Each source begins with an abbreviation taken mostly from the 'List of Abbreviated Titles of the Printed Sources of Scottish History to 1560' (Supplement to the Scottish Historical Review, October 1963).

Bagimond's Roll - Scottish History Society Misc. vi, pp.3-77, ed. A.I. Dunlop 1939.
Balm. Lib. - Liber Sancte Marie de Balmorinach, Abbotsford Club 1841.
Barrow, G. W. S., 1999 (ed) The Charters of David I (Woodbridge)
Blaeu's Atlas Novus 1654, reproduced in J.Stone's Illustrated Maps of Scotland, 1991. [see also Pont]
Book of Deer - see Jackson 1972.
Camb. Reg. - Registrum Monasterii S. Marie de Cambuskenneth, Grampian Club 1872.
Dunf.Reg. - Registrum de Dunfermelyn, Bannatyne Club 1842.
ER The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, ed. J.Stuart & others 1878-1908.
ESC - Early Scottish Charters prior to 1153, ed. A.C. Lawrie 1905.
Fife Ct. Bk. - The Sheriff Court Book of Fife 1515-22, ed. W.C. Dickinson, SHS 1928.
Glas. Reg. - Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis, Bannatyne & Maitland Clubs, 1843.
Inchaff. Chrs. - Charters, Bulls and other Documents relating to the Abbey of Inchaffrey, SHS 1908.
Inchcolm Chrs. - Charters of the Abbey of Inchcolm, ed. D.E. Easson & A. Macdonald, Scottish History Society 1938.
Jackson, K.H., 1972, The Gaelic Notes in the Book of Deer (Cambridge).
Laing Chrs. - Calendar of the Laing Charters 854-1837, ed J. Anderson 1899.
Lind. Cart. - Chartulary of the Abbey of Lindores, Scottish History Society 1903.
N.B. Chrs. - Carte Monialium de Northberwic, Bannatyne Club 1847.
Pont: Stone, J.C., 1989, The Pont Manuscript Maps of Scotland: Sixteenth century origins of a Blaeu atlas (Tring)
Retours - Inquisitionum ad capellam domini regis retornatarum...abbreviatio Rec.Com., (3 vols., 1811-16).
RMS - Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scottorum ed. J.M. Thomson & others 1882-1914 [aka Register of the Great Seal].
Roy/1750s - General William Roy's Military Survey of Scotland 1750s [copies held by the Department of Geography. See also G. Whittington, 'The Roy Map: The Protracted and Fair Copies' (Part One), Scottish Geographical Magazine vol.102 (1) pp.18-28, 1986; and 'The Roy Map: The Protracted and Fair Copies' (Part Two), Scottish Geographical Magazine vol.102 (2) pp.66-73(1986). These articles contain detailed studies of the Roy maps as they relate to parts of Fife].
RRS i - Regesta Regum Scottorum vol.i, (Acts/Malcolm IV) ed. G.W.S. Barrow, 1960.
RRS ii - Regesta Regum Scottorum vol.ii, (Acts/William I) ed. G.W.S. Barrow, 1971.
RRS v - Regesta Regum Scottorum vol.v, (Acts/Robert I) ed. A.A.M. Duncan, 1988.
RRS vi - Regesta Regum Scottorum vol.v, (Acts/David II) ed. B. Webster, 1982.
RSS Registrum Secreti Sigilli Regum Scottorum, ed. M. Livingstone & others (Edinburgh 1908- )
Sasines - Register of Sasines, kept at (East) Register House, National Archives of Scotland, Princes Street, Edinburgh.
St A. Lib. - Liber Cartarum Prioratus Sancti Andree in Scotia, Bannatyne Club 1841.
St A. Rent. - Rentale Sancti Andree, Scottish History Society 1913 .

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Chris Gwinn's Celtic Etymology reading list

E. Bachellery / J. Vendryes / P.-Y. Lambert, Le Lexique Etymologique de l'Irlandais Ancien
Irish etymological dictionary - still a work in progress

Also helpful for Archaic Irish is
Sabine Ziegler, Die Sprache der altirischen Ogam-Inschriften

Welsh online dictionary - Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru

For the etymology of select Irish, Breton, Welsh and Cornish words, see:
Kenneth Jackson, Language and History in Early Britain
H. Pedersen, H. Lewis, A Concise Comparative Celtic Grammar

Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise
(Gaulish dictionary, with etymological notes. Also very useful for ancient Brittonic, as he takes Gaulish and Brittonic to have been sister languages in a Gallo-Brittonic family, so a good deal of Brittonic onomastic material is presented in the book.)
P.Y. Lambert La Langue Gauloise

There is a Proto-Celtic lexicon available at:
http://www.aber.ac.uk/~awcwww/s/p5_lexicon.html
but it still has many errors in it at this point, so use it with caution

For the Indo European roots of select Celtic words:
Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches Etymologisches Worterbuch
Online at: http://iiasnt.leidenuniv.nl/ied/
Calvert Watkins, American Heritage Dictionary of Indo European Roots
Online at: http://www.bartleby.com/61/IEroots.html

The Celtic studies journals provide a wealth of material - for example, the many articles on Celtic etymologies written by
Eric Hamp, which appear in Etudes Celtiques, et al.

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