Why do the Welsh have such silly place names?
In this case to attract tourists
Placename and toponymy[edit]
The original name of the medieval
township, within whose boundaries the present-day village lies, was
Pwllgwyngyll, meaning "the pool of the white hazels".
[14][15] Pwllgwyngyll was one of two townships making up the parish, the other being Treforion; its name was first recorded as
'Piwllgunyl' in an ecclesiastical valuation conducted in the 1250s for the
Bishop of Norwich.
[16] The parish name was recorded as
Llanfair y Pwllgwyngyll (
'Llanfair' meaning "[St.] Mary's church";
y meaning "(of) the") as far back as the mid 16th century, in
Leland's
Itinerary. The suffixing of the township name to that of the church would have served to distinguish the parish from the many other sites dedicated to Mary in Wales.
Longer versions of the name are thought to have first been used in the 19th century in an attempt to develop the village as a commercial and tourist centre. The long form of the name is the longest place name in the
United Kingdom and one of the
longest in the world at 58 characters (51 "letters" since "
ch" and "
ll" are
digraphs, and are treated as single letters in the
Welsh language). The village is still signposted
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, marked on
Ordnance Survey maps as
Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll and the
railway station is officially named
Llanfairpwll, a form used by local residents. The name is also shortened to
Llanfair PG, sufficient to distinguish it from other places in Wales called
Llanfair (meaning "[St.] Mary's church").