THE MEANING AND DERIVATION OF PLACE-NAMES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n BRO MORGANNWG – VALE OF GLAMORGAN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n There are two patterns in English which convey a Welsh place-name such as Bro Morgannwg <\/strong>– namely \u2018Vale of Glamorgan<\/strong>\u2019 and \u2018Glamorgan Vale<\/strong>\u2019 (cf Ogmore Vale, Ebbw Vale, Merthyr Vale etc). This second pattern is the exact equivalent of the Welsh name though you\u2019ll notice that the English word order differs from that of Welsh. Those of you who speak Welsh or have some knowledge of the language will know also that adjectives follow the noun in Welsh – as they do in Italian, Spanish and French (with some exceptions). English, like German, being a member of the Germanic family of languages, follows a different pattern in that the adjective precedes the noun.<\/p>\n The Welsh word \u2018bro\u2019 <\/strong>has no exact equivalent in English and numerous words are used to convey the meaning – depending on the context – words such as \u2018land\u2019, \u2018area\u2019, \u2018district\u2019, \u2018locality\u2019, \u2018neighbourhood\u2019, \u2018native haunt\u2019. In the case of Bro Morgannwg, the word chosen in English is \u2018Vale\u2019<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The second part of our place-name is Morgannwg. This consists of two elements – Morgan + wg<\/strong>. The Old Welsh ending \u2018-wg\u2019 <\/strong>means \u2018territory of\u2019 <\/strong>or \u2018land belonging to\u2019. <\/strong>And the person to whom the land belonged was Morgan Mwynfawr – Morgan the Wealthy – who was King of south east Wales in the eighth century. Some scholars maintain that it was after a tenth century king – Morgan Hen – Morgan the Aged – that the area was named. Either way, the name was Morgan! So Bro Morgannwg <\/strong>means something like \u2018the district of Morgan\u2019s land\u2019<\/strong>. (Don’t worry about the double \u2018n\u2019 – it is merely something that happens to the spelling when the consonant \u2018n\u2019 falls under the main accent.)<\/p>\n In the English version, we\u2019ve seen that \u2018Vale\u2019 is the equivalent of \u2018Bro\u2019 – and this is followed by the seemingly English name Glamorgan. But on further inspection we see that \u2018Glamorgan\u2019 is made up of two elements – \u2018Gla<\/strong>-\u2018 and \u2018Morgan\u2019<\/strong>. The second element, Morgan, has been explained above. The first element \u2018gla<\/strong>-\u2018 is a contraction of the Welsh word \u2018gwlad\u2019 <\/strong>which means \u2018land\u2019 <\/strong>or \u2018country\u2019<\/strong>. So the name Glamorgan isn\u2019t an English word at all – and I\u2019m sure that has surprised many people! \u2018Morgan-wg\u2019 <\/strong>and \u2018Gwlad-Morgan\u2019 <\/strong>are two Welsh names which mean exactly the same thing – \u2018Morgan\u2019s land<\/strong>\u2019.<\/p>\n Next month – Y Barri, Cold Knap and Colcot.<\/p>\n Ann M. Jones<\/p>\n THE MEANING AND DERIVATION OF PLACE-NAMES BRO MORGANNWG – VALE OF GLAMORGAN There are two patterns in English which convey a Welsh place-name such as Bro Morgannwg – namely \u2018Vale of Glamorgan\u2019 and \u2018Glamorgan Vale\u2019 (cf Ogmore Vale, Ebbw Vale, Merthyr Vale etc). This second pattern is the exact equivalent of the Welsh name though you\u2019ll notice that the English […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[334,228],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-37U","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11844,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=11844","url_meta":{"origin":12022,"position":0},"title":"The Meaning And Derivation Of Place-Names","author":"Alan Williams","date":"7th July 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"THE MEANING AND DERIVATION OF PLACE-NAMES Many people are fascinated by the meaning and derivation of place-names - so we\u2019ll look at the names that are local to us in this area - before moving on to look at some further afield. The obvious place to start is at our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6036,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6036","url_meta":{"origin":12022,"position":1},"title":"National Urdd Eisteddfod – Congratulations","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th June 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The What\u2019s On Team were delighted to receive this letter of congratulation from Ann M. Jones: \u2018Very many congratulations to Brennig Davies who won the Crown at this year\u2019s National Urdd Eisteddfod - the largest Youth Festival in Europe - which was held in Cardiff last month. The adjudicators were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Congratulations"","block_context":{"text":"Congratulations","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=36"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Picture1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15123,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15123","url_meta":{"origin":12022,"position":2},"title":"Five Mile Lane\u2019s Hidden Past","author":"Alan Williams","date":"7th February 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"FIVE MILE LANE\u2019S HIDDEN PAST Most of us will have been familiar with the old narrow twisty, turny, downright dangerous section of the A4226 \u201cFive Mile Lane\u201d immediately north of Barry. The Vale of Glamorgan Council had plans to improve this section of road but before construction could commence a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Picture14-245x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4546,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4546","url_meta":{"origin":12022,"position":3},"title":"Vale of Glamorgan Walking Festival","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th April 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 A number of residents joined the Wildlife Group walk last year as part of the Vale of Glamorgan Walking Festival. This year it takes place on Thursday 17th May starting at 10.30am from St Marys Church and proceeding via the Elizabethan Orchard at Burdons Hill, then on to Goldsland\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Wildlife Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17025,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=17025","url_meta":{"origin":12022,"position":4},"title":"New Cemetery And Park For Wenvoe","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st May 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"ARTICLES of GENERAL INTEREST NEW CEMETERY AND PARK FOR WENVOE A major step in the development of Wenvoe Community was taken by Wenvoe Community Council at its April 2026 meeting, when the Council approved the full business plan for the provision of a Cemetery and nature reserve at the Whitehall\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10111,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10111","url_meta":{"origin":12022,"position":5},"title":"A Wenvoe Forum","author":"Alan Williams","date":"23rd August 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A WENVOE FORUM - CONSIDERING TODAY AND TOMORROW We had a very interesting and encouraging meeting with Vale of Glamorgan attended by our Senedd Member, Jane Hutt, Councillor Jonathan Bird, Tom Bowring, VoG Head of Policy and Business Transformation and Nicola Sumner Smith from the Creative Rural Communities Team. Tom\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12022"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12022"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12141,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12022\/revisions\/12141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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