Place names

Some knowledge of the meaning of Welsh place names may bring added pleasure to a visit to Rhondda Cynon Taf. Amongst the most common words on the map are:

aber

confluence

afon

river

bach / fach

small

blaen (plural: blaenau)

top end, limit, summit

cae

field

coch / goch

red

cefn

Ridge

craig

Rock, cliff

cwm (plural: cymoedd)

narrow valley

glyn

deep valley

gwyn / wen

white

llan

churchyard, also church, parish

llwyn

grove, bush

maes

place, meadow

mawr / fawr

big

mynydd / fynydd

mountain

nant

stream

pentre

village

pen

top, head, summit

pont

bridge

tre / tref

town

ynys

two meanings: island; meadow

Remember that w in Welsh can be a vowel, pronounced like the u in bull, and suddenly names like Ynysybwl become easy to say. Road signs are generally in both English and Welsh, and some place names may look quite different in the two languages because they are not translations: Aberpennar (confluence of the Pennar) is known in English as Mountain Ash (unusually, the English version came first, Mountain Ash was named after a public house and the Welsh translation is geographically inaccurate as it is the ffrwd that joins the Cynon there rather than the Pennar).

If you would like to find out more about the meaning of names of places in Rhondda Cynon Taf, look at the online heritage trail here.

To find out more about Destination Rhondda Cynon Taf and to enter one of our draws, please click here.

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