When I moved to Wiltshire a few years back I cam across a small self-published booklet called The Celtic Triangle by a Welsh-speaking local resident named T.Elwyn Jones. Having lived in Wiltshire for many years he endeavoured to draw links between North Wiltshire/Gloucestershire and the Celtic descended inhabitants of the Shropshire/Welsh borders he had grown up with.

A labour of love for the author and fascinating little book to which I still often refer. He lists words like ‘afon’ (avon) meaning river. The word ‘pen’ has three different meanings: ‘top’ as in Pen-bryn (top of a hill); ‘end’ as in Pen-dref (towns-end) and ‘head’ as in Pen-tir (headland) which also includes the word for ‘leader or chief’.

He goes on to say that it has been suggested that the word ‘downs’ comes from the Celtic ‘Don’ or Donnau meaning waves. However, Don is also found in city names – din, dun, and don described a defensive habitation (so a bit confusing).

Its full of information of this nature (some of it subjective). He also lists alphabetically the place names of the area giving his interpretation of the ‘root’. My favourite is his entry for my town Swindon:

It has been suggested that Swindon is derived from the Saxon swine-hill or from the Viking Sweyn-down.
Alternative meaning: Swyndon – Swyn means ‘Enchanted, holy charm, magic or blessed” whimsical perhaps though it is worth noting that Swindon started as a settlement on a hill that has never been fully built on (in the Old Town district). There was once a spring flowing from the top of this hill and even today there are several underground springs which feed a couple of lakes. Evidence of human occupation dating back to 5000bc has been found at this site and there is still the ruins of an old church built on a mound on top of the hill (almost certainly an ancient burial ground). This spot also has a panoramic view of the Marlborough Downs including the Uffington White Horse.