Now That’s A Name

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllllandysiliogogogoch…it is an odd name for a village for sure, but it is a real name. The name is actually the long version of the name. Shorter versions are Llanfairpwllgwyngyll or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll. The name is often shortened to Llanfairpwll and sometimes to Llanfair PG. Interesting facts, those, but what in the world does it mean? Most names mean something, and this one is no different. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllllandysiliogogogoch is a village and community on the Isle of Anglesey, Wales. The village is located on the Menai Strait, next to the Britannia Bridge. It had 3,107 people in the 2011 census. Of those, 71% could speak Welsh. By 2021, the population decreased to 2,900. It’s the sixth largest settlement in the county by population.

Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch is a lengthened form of the community’s name, which is occasionally used…in some contexts, anyway. The name has 58 characters, which are split into 18 syllables, and it is said that the small town has the longest name in Europe and the second longest one-word place name in the world. Please, don’t ask me to pronounce it, because I don’t think I could. Nevertheless, the name does have a meaning. Literally translated, the long form of the name means, “The church of Saint Mary (Llanfair) of the pool of the white hazels over against the fierce whirlpool and the church of Saint Tysilio of the red cave.” Somehow that doesn’t exactly make any more sense than the village name itself.

I would hate to be the little kid in school who was trying to learn the name of the town they hailed from. They wouldn’t be able to spell it, much less say it, and then to try to tell someone what the name means…not likely. The poor kids might just as well give up before they even start. I have heard of unusual names for towns people have lived in, some of which I would never want to live in, but this one is ridiculous. Still, if a village is going to have such a unique name, in might just as well be ridiculous, right.

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