Wigan: Difference between revisions

== History ==

=== Toponymy ===

 

The name ''Wigan'' is probably a [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] place-name : it might be a diminutive form of Brittonic ''*wīg'' "homestead, settlement" (later Welsh ''gwig'').<ref>{{Citation |title=Newsletter 15: Wigan&nbsp;– What's in a name? |date=15 July 1998 |url=http://www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk/content/News_Letters/news015.htm |access-date=18 November 2008 |publisher=Wigan Archaeological Society}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Mills |first=A.D. |title=A Dictionary of British Place-Names |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?entry=t40.e13974&srn=1&ssid=595401713#FIRSTHIT |year=2003 |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-852758-9}} {{Subscription required}}</ref> It has also been suggested directly a Celtic personal name ''Wigan'', a name corresponding to [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]] ''Vicanus'', [[Old Welsh]] ''Uuicant'' or [[Old Breton]] ''Uuicon''.<ref name="pnlanc">{{Cite book |last=Ekwall |first=Eilert |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028039588 |title=The Place Names Of Lancashire |date=1922 |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924028039588/page/n120 103]}}</ref> plus the nominal suffix ''-an'' has also been suggested (c.f. numerous places in France named [[Le Vigan (disambiguation)|Le Vigan]]).<ref>{{Cite book |last=James |first=Alan G. |url=http://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary.pdf |title=The Brittonic Language in the Old North: A Guide to the Place-Name Evidence |volume=2: Guide to the Elements |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813011121/http://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary.pdf |archive-date=13 August 2017}}</ref>