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Some are obvious, some much less so – but how did each area of Cardiff get its name?

From who the Adam is in Adamsdown to how Canton ended up being Canton, the reasons behind how they got their names are just as unique as the suburbs themselves.

For some suburbs the answer is straightforward, but the history behind some reveals more about the city and how it came to be the Cardiff we know today.

With the help of experts including Cardiff University’s Dr Dylan Foster Evans and well-known Cardiff author Peter Finch, here are the stories behind the place names of the capital.

Adamsdown

According to some historians, the area around the cemetery down to the Sanquahar Street area was known as the Downs – with that land thought to have been either given to or bought by a 14th Century gatekeeper of Cardiff Castle named Adam Kyngot. Hence Adam’s Downs, or Adamsdown.

Birchgrove

Not as straightforward as being named after a grove of Birch trees, it is believed that before the suburb developed an inn called the Birchgrove stood in the area.

According to Dr Dylan Foster Evans, deputy head of Cardiff University’s school of Welsh, the older inn was on a site next to the current pub of the same name which stands on the junction of Birchgrove Road and Caerphilly Road.

Today’s pub was built in the 1920s, in front of the classic 16th-17th Century coach-house.

Butetown

Bute is a name that has become inextricably linked with modern Cardiff. In 1801 Cardiff was only Wales’ 25th largest town but the Marquess of Bute oversaw the building of Cardiff’s docks – today part of the Butetown ward – as well as encouraging the development of the coalfields across South Wales to help Cardiff boom.

Thanks to the influence of the Marquess and his descendants the city saw an astonishing population growth throughout the 19th Century, helping pave the way for Cardiff’s city status in 1905 and, ultimately, its capital city status in 1955.

Bute died at Cardiff Castle in 1848, by which time he was widely considered to be the creator of modern Cardiff.

Caerau

Caer – as in the first syllable of Caerdydd, which eventually gave rise to the colloquial English version Cardiff – is the Welsh for “fort”.

And “Caerau” is the Welsh for “forts”. An Iron Age hillfort stands nearby. A dig by Channel Four’s Time Team suggested it was occupied as early as 600BC.

Canton/Pontcanna

St Canna was a sixth century princess, supposedly from Brittany, who converted pagans to Christianity.

She became a nun and is believed to have lived in Llangan, Pembrokeshire.

Her name survives in the Cardiff suburbs of Pontcanna – meaning Canna’s bridge – and Treganna, the Welsh translation of Canton, which means Canna’s town.

Cathays

Regularly mispronounced with a soft “th” sound by visitors, the curiously-named city centre area may be linked to a battle site or even wildcats.

Experts suggest it could be a corruption of Cad Hayes – meaning an open area of battle – or the old English phrase Catt Haga, meaning “enclosure (haga) where wildcats (catt) are seen”.

Coryton

The area was named after former Cardiff Conservative MP Sir James Herbert Cory, who served between 1915 and 1923.

According to the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, Cory and his brother founded a scholarship at the Cardiff Technical College.

The MP also gave his MP’s salary to the funds of the King Edward VII Hospital (the Cardiff Royal Infirmary) and the famous Royal Hamadryad Hospital in the Cardiff docks.

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Creigiau

Named after the Welsh word simply meaning “rocks” or “crags” it probably alludes to the quarrying which began next to the village in about 1890.

Cyncoed

Deliberately and fondly mis-named “King Kong” by generations of schoolchildren, this upmarket area of Cardiff was earlier known as “Cefncoed”, meaning “wooded ridge”. And, in fact, the leafy suburb of today was heavily wooded just over a century or so ago.

Danescourt

The name of this 1970s housing estate was devised by the developers, combining the names of two earlier great houses on the site – Radyr Court Farm and Danesbrook House.

(Image: Google)

However there is no evidence of Danish invasion here so the origin of that name is unclear, according to Peter Finch, author of the cult hit guide to the city Real Cardiff.

Ely

It simply takes its name from the River Ely. The name is originally Welsh, with the river called Elái, and the village Trelái, Dr Evans explained.

Fairwater

According to Mr Finch, the former hamlet’s name is from one of the prebends, which received a stipend from Llandaff Cathedral.

In some documents it is called the Prebend of Fairwell, or Farewell. Its Welsh name is Tyllgoed, meaning “holed trees”, and thought to be the name of the stream.

Gabalfa

(Image: Google Streetview)

Today known to many visitors to the city for its massive traffic interchange and flyover, its origins have a very different transport-related name.

It is derived from the Welsh “ceubalfa”, meaning place of the boat.

It comes from its role as the site of a former river crossing when it was part of the parish of Llandaff.

Grangetown

Formerly it was a grange, a bleak area of land which was farmed by monks from Margam Abbey, near Port Talbot.

Gwaelod-y-Garth

Welsh for “Foot of the Garth”, the hill of which the village – next to Taffs Well in Rhondda Cynon Taff – stands at the bottom.

Heath

The area was an area of densely-wooded common land north of the town of Cardiff until the 18th century.

Known as the Great Heath, legend has it that the woods were once home to brigands and thieves, on a site which later housed a racecourse.

The last vestiges of the heath can be found in today’s Heath Park.

Leckwith

Dr Dylan Foster Evans explained: “An English form of the Welsh ‘Lecwydd’. ‘Lecwydd’ is probably a shortened form of an old Welsh personal name, ‘Helygwydd’. Commonly, but incorrectly, said to be from the Welsh ‘llechwedd’ (‘a slope’).”

Lisvane

An Anglicised version of the Welsh “Llysfaen”, which means “stone court”.

According to the Lisvane Historical Society, the court in question would probably have been a building used by ancient kings in the 8th or 9th Century as somewhere in the local administrative area to base themselves on tours around the kingdom.

Llandaff/Llandaff North

As can be found throughout South Wales, “llan” is the Welsh prefix for “church of”.

Aptly, given it is home to the magnificence of Llandaff Cathedral, in this case it roughly translates from Welsh as the Church on the River Taff.

Llanedeyrn

Presumably named after the sixth-century St Edeyrn. According to legend he was a Briton companion of King Arthur who later became a recluse in Brittany.

His name also lives on in the Breton village of Lannédern.

Llanishen

According to the Llanishen Local History Society a sixth-century monk named Isan from Llandaff established a settlement there which took his name, although it has since been corrupted.

Maindy

A corruption of the Welsh for “stone house” at a time when such buildings would have been the exception, according to Mr Finch.

Morganstown

According to Mr Finch it was named after a Morgan Williams, who leased land here early in the district’s development.

Pentrebane

Dr Evans said the Welsh version Pentre-baen comes from an earlier “Cefntref-baen”. It means “the ridge of Payn’s farm”, with Payn being a Norman personal name.

Pentwyn

Named after a geographical features – its Welsh meaning is the top of a hillock.

Pentyrch

Again, “pen” is Welsh for top or hill. The second half of the name is probably the plural of “twrch”, meaning boar, says Dr Evans.

That would translate as “hill of the boars”, although it could also mean “[hill shaped like] a boar’s head”.

Penylan

Once more meaning summit or top of the hill, the word “lan” also indicates there was a religious significance.

Plasnewydd

Originally built in the late 1700s and expanded in the 1830s, the Mackintosh Institute was called Plasnewydd, or “new mansion”, before becoming known as Roath castle.

The building is proudly home to one of Cardiff’s oldest sports clubs and is noted for its distinctive castellated walls. Plasnewydd is the area which primarily includes Roath.

Pontprennau

Meaning “the bridge of the trees”, the area was named after a farm.

Radyr

(Image: Media Wales)

Thought to be from the 11th-century “aradur”, a word meaning house of prayer, which comes from the Latin oratorium.

Rhiwbina

According to the website Rhiwbina.info, the name comes from “rhiw”, meaning hill or slope in Welsh, and was named after St Beuno, the seventh-century Welsh saint who reportedly performed miracles in the area. However, it could also be “pina”, meaning pine tree.

In the early 20th Century it had a new-found fame as the site of Rhiwbina’s Garden Village, with a vision of providing good housing for workers in pleasant surroundings.

Of course, all its history hasn’t stopped children across the city referring to it as “Ribena” over the decades.

Riverside

(Image: Richard Swingler)

A common sense explanation – it is next to the River Taff!

Roath

The most likely explanation is that the name is a corruption of the Gaelic word for fort, “ráth” – with Roath being known as Y Rhath in Welsh.

It could also derive from “rhodd”, the Welsh word for gift, or even a version of Ratostabius, the name given to the Roman settlement on the site of modern-day Cardiff.

Rumney/Llanrumney

Named after the anglicised version of the Rhmyni river, which runs through this part of eastern Cardiff, and not to be confused with the similarly named Valleys town of Rhymney, which is also named for the same reason.

Splott

(Image: James Davies Photography)

Arguably the most memorable of the city’s place names because of its unusual sound, it probably comes from the old English word meaning a “plot of land” although another explanation holds that it comes from the Welsh “ysblad” – land surrounded by marsh (see Tremorfa ). Sadly, the long-held apocryphal story about it being a shortening of “God’s plot” is likely to be just a myth.

St Fagans

Fagan was said to have been a second-century bishop who was sent by Pope Eleutherius to Britain from Italy, according to 1911 book The Lives of the British Saints, by S Baring-Gould and John Fisher. Incidentally, his festival day is not marked in any Welsh calendars.

St Mellons/Old St Mellons

Named after either Mellon or Melaine, both of whom were bishops from northern France. In Welsh it is named Llaneirwg.

Thornhill

The Welsh name is Draenen Pen-y-graig (“the thornbush at the top of the rock”). Thornhill is a location near the crest of Craig Llanishen.

Tongwynlais

Another geographical explanation – the Welsh “ton” (“unploughed land”) of the stream Gwynlais, Dr Evans said.

Tremorfa

Welsh for “town on the marsh” in reference to its low-lying position close to where the Rhymney River flows into the Bristol Channel.

Trowbridge

A similar explanation to Pontprennau but with a very different name, it probably means tree bridge, and was named after a farm.

Ty Glas

Translated as “blue house” or “green house” (glas usually translates as blue but can refer to green in certain circumstances), the area was another named after a farm previously on the site, Mr Finch said.

Whitchurch

(Image: Google Maps)

Probably named after a 12th-century chapel – or “white church” – it may also be a reference to salt deposits in the area.