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Llan place name element: Map


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Llan or Lan is a common place name element in Brythonic languages such as Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Cumbric, and possibly Pictish. In Walesmarker there are over 630 place names beginning with 'Llan'. In Cornwallmarker and Brittany the element is usually spelled 'Lan' or 'Lann'.

The original meaning of llan in Welsh is "an enclosed piece of land", but it later evolved to mean the parish surrounding a church. Most places beginning with Llan have some connection to a saint, usually of the Celtic church. The element following 'Llan' is usually the name of the saint, for example Llandewimarker 'Enclosure or Church of Saint David'.

However a number of place names beginning with Llan evolved from other Welsh words like 'Glan' ('river bank') or 'Nant' ('stream' or 'small valley'), for example Llanbradachmarker (from Nant Bradach, 'valley of the River Bradach'). In Cornish as well, some place names beginning with 'Lan' derive from Cornish 'Nans' ('valley'), such as Lanteglosmarker from Nanseglos ('valley of the church').

It is believed that the "llan" epithet originated not just for an enclosure, but more importantly the 'tribal enclosure' and possibly just 'tribe'; when the original peoples arriving after the last Ice Age, were nomadic. With the coming of the first Celtic Christian missionaries, these early Christians sought to place their centres of worship in an area of some security. With the conversions of the tribes, this obviously fell within the tribal compound, the llan. With the disintegration of the tribal boundaries, all that remained of most of these enclosures was the church, or at best a walled village or town. The original meaning of 'llan' with its tribal connotations disappeared.

Examples of Llan place names in Wales

Places named after saints

Place names with religious connections other than a saint

Place names without a religious connection

Examples of Lann place names in Cornwall and Devon

Places named after saints

Examples of Lan place names in Brittany

Places named after saints

Examples of Lan place names in Cumbria

The Cumbric language was spoken in Cumbriamarker up to the Early Middle Ages, and so some place names in Cumbria have a Celtic origin.

Places named after saints

  • Landicanmarker (Birkenhead, Merseyside), Saint Tegan
  • Lamplughmarker (Cumbria), Saint Moloch (Lamplugh has also been explained as being derived from Llan Plwyf 'parish church', 'Nant Bluch 'bare valley', or Irish Glan Flough 'wet dale')

Examples of Lhan place names in Scotland

Some place names in Scotlandmarker have Pictish elements such as Aber and Lhan that are cognate with other Brythonic languages such as Welsh.

Places named after saints

  • Lhanbrydemarker (Gaelic: Lann Brìghde), Saint Bride (the place name is first recorded as Lamanbride in 1215, and the modern Welsh-like spelling is probably a 19th century innovation)

See also


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