to think and wonder why Cumbria has an exotic Italian-sounding name?

[cowsoy]

Am I the only one that thinks Cumbria doesn't sound like a very English-sounding name for a country? Not many words end in A in the English language. I wonder why this is?

It was Cumberland when I lived there as a child.

"Cumbria' is derived from old Welsh.

Lots of Welsh place names end in vowels, so the name is not in the least bit 'exotic'.

Ashby De La Zouche anyone?

'Cumbria' is derived from old Welsh.

Lots of Welsh place names end in vowels, so the name is not in the least bit 'exotic'.

Duggees Yes, i'd heard that before. It makes me laugh when I hear people referred to as Mancunians - are they basically being called a tit?! (apologies to any Mancunians!.

The Grand Tetons made my son snigger when he first hear about them.

DuggeesWoggle The Tetons, as well: www.climbing.com/places/know-the-grand-teton/

How about the Paps of Jura, HorseDoorBolted? Not an English place name obviously but i don't think it takes a genius to work out what they were thinking of! Although I believe there are 3 papa

Mam tor means mother hill
Clovelly always sounds Welsh to me not Devon

I find the Viking place names fascinating. On the west coast there is Skelmersdale and the places ending in ‘by’ Formby, Kirkby, Irby, and on the east coast is Skegness.

Some small village names make me wonder where they came from.

Wasps nest?
Spital in the street?
Land of nod?

Land of nod is apparantly a biblical reference. I guess at wasps nest there used to be a wasps nest?? Still odd to call the village after it, maybe it was a particularly impressive nest!

I also wonder why some counties had their names changed. So Cumberland becoming Cumbria. Cleveland just disappearing and becoming part of Yorkshire.

Nottingham was Snottingham.

Ashby de la zouche must be from Norman times? (Hilariously, the autocorrect makes it Ashby we last douche ...)
There's a village called Cold Christmas somewhere.... Midlands..??

It probably just sounded fancy in the 70s when it was invented.

Within Cumbria the two old counties of Cumberland and Westmorland are still widely recognised e.g Westmorland General Hospital, The Westmorland Gazette, The Westmorland County Show vs The Cumberland Infirmary, The Cumberland and Westmorland Herald, The Cumberland Show.

But there’s Northumbria, Anglia, Lancastria etc Cumbria isn’t that unusual?

Mercia as well.
There is a lane called 'There and back again' in Bristol and also Christmas Steps - lovely names.

I think Lancastria was a ship rather than a place?

I suppose it depends how you say it

Cum - Briya
Or Cooooom- briiiahhhhh (much more Italian)

@HorseDoorBolted, you’ll be excited to learn there are two small but perfectly formed hills in Senegal called “Les Mamelles”, a name I don’t think I need to translate

Is the 'ia' at the end not a Latin suffix signifying 'land of'?

During the Roman invasion, Ireland was known as Hibernia 'the land of winter'. They thought our weather was too bad and didn't bother with us.

So I think the exotic sounding name is a remnant of the Roman invasion.

Genetically speaking, Cumbrian and North Eastern people are quite distinctly not Anglo Saxon. We're celtic-viking hybrids. None of that Saxon and Norman nonsense for us thank you very much!

BrizzleMint, I sometimes wonder if we've met.

Apatria is the name I've always found quite odd. And of course the famous Wetwang.

When I was a kid I was very confused to see Cumbria on a map as my dad came from the Cambrian mountains in Wales and I thought it was the same place!

Didn't know it was the same root word then.

footle it's possible. Do you teach?

Is the 'ia' at the end not a Latin suffix signifying 'land of'?

So the land of the Cymru.

Old Welsh was spoken in parts of the Lake District until the Norman Conquest. I saw a Cumbrian shepherd on TV a few years ago, they count sheep in a language (Cumbric I think) that sounds just like Welsh.