MacQuarrie, Alan (1997) The name Govan, the Kirk and the Doomster Hill. Annual Report of the Society of Friends of Govan Old, 7. pp. 1-3.
Full text not available in this repository. (Request a copy from the Strathclyde author)Abstract
The modern Gaelic name of Govan is Baile a'Ghobhainn, "smith's homestead", although there is no early attestation to this. I have suggested that this is probably a back-formation, since in modern pronunciation this would become Balgowan or Balgown, and since Govan appears to have been first and foremost an ecclesiastical settlement rather than a secular one, I have tentatively made the alternative suggestion that the name might derive from a diminutive form of Gaelic gob, "beak, nose": gobán, "little beak", referring to the promontory of raised ground on which the kirkyard is situated, stretching into the flood plain of the Clyde.
| Item type: | Article |
|---|---|
| ID code: | 20095 |
| Keywords: | Govan, Doomster Hill, Scottish history, glasgow history, Scotland |
| Subjects: | History > Great Britain > Scotland |
| Department: | Faculty of Humanities And Social Sciences > Social Work |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing user: | Dr Alan Macquarrie |
| Date Deposited: | 28 Jul 2011 11:25 |
| Last modified: | 12 Mar 2012 11:14 |
| URI: | http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/20095 |
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