Cylchgronau Cymru

The heavy incidence of animal names in some regions seems to suggest that a fashion in such names was being followed. This concentration is particularly noticable in the basins of Twrch and Banw. The flora too has contributed many names. We have birch, holly rowan, oak, thorn, ivy, alder and willow. (bedw, celyn, creolen/criafol, derw, draenen, eiddew, gwern, helyg). The names Brwynen, Nant Alan, Afon Cedig, Cownwy, Cerist (?) and Nant Gwgon may be botanical. The associative name Cefn Ysbin Brook adds barberry to the list. Several names relate to husbandry and housekeeping and to articles on the land and in the house. Caethle, Caegarw, Dolwar, Ffosydd, Clawdd, Cerniog, Cringae, Pantiau, Glasdir and Waen/Weun express how the husbandman regarded the land which he tilled. Libart and Acre concern the holding of land. Tanllwyth and Glo refer to fuel. Y Fagl, Trap and Gwden refer probably to the use of snares and gins on the land. Nant Cawell (creel) and Nant Cogan (= small cup, perhaps) may have been so called because the basin of a stream bears some resemblance to a container but another explanation of these names is that the streams were associated with some incident involving a creel and a cup. Nant y Caws again is explainable in more than one way. Caws may imply that the land on its banks is rich enough to produce cheese. It may however be more likely that the name was bestowed on account of some happening connected with cheese. Such connections probably lie behind the use of the names of household articles in Nant Sebon (soap) and Nant y Galen (bar, usually of soap). Another name containing a household article, needle, (Afon Nodwydd) refers not to housewifery but to the water piercing the land. Similarly Nant y Swch is the name of a stream which has cut a furrow down the mountain side. Names relating to artifacts houses, fortifications, crosses, etc are usually of the associative kind because they contain a specific place name, e.g. Nant Melin y Grug. There are however several which are associated with an unspecified edifice such as Bachws, Croes, Melin, Pandy. Streams containing carn and carnedd may be associated with cairns erected by man or with configurations of the landscape. The simplest names are those in which the generic is joined with an adjective. The most common aspect of a stream to be denoted in this way is its colour. Streams in the List are described as being black, white, gray, red, yellow, blue black (?), blue white and wine coloured. The adjective in another group concerns the sound of the flowing waters Bytherig (?), Clywedog (?), Crygnant, Eithion, Menial and Clochnant.7 Bythigion, Gwyllt, Hafesp and Rhysnant refer to the quality of the flow while it is its appearance which is described in Llugwy, Llachar and Ewyn. The aspects in Cledan and Oerffrwd are hardness and temperature and in Bitrach and Shitbrook it is pollution. Sometimes the name simply means a river. Yukon and Ohio are good examples of generic names which were adopted for particular rivers by settlers, strangers to the local language. Examples of this much nearer home are the Avons of England. It is when a word becomes unfamiliar through a change of language or through obsolescence that this happens. There is one example in the List, Lach Brook. Not far from this stream across the border in Shropshire there is another example, The Rhea Brook. The naming of a stream, it seems to me, was not a process which always took place in isolation and independently of the naming of other streams and places in the vicinity. Several of the listed -Some rivers in Scotland are similarly named, e.g. Labharag = little loud one. Brithrach = little talkative one, v. H.C.P.N.S.. 449.