I’m wondering where the name Dublin came from. I’ve visited the city, as my mother’s Irish, and it is referred to on signs and souvenirs in Gaelic as Baile Atha Cliath, which translates to, as my mom tells me, ‘City of the Black Pool.’ If the Irish named it so, from where does the word Dublin originate?
Baile Atha Cliath means the town of the ford of the hurdles. Dublin is derived from dubh linn, literally black pool. Why they call it one and not the other, I’m not sure. I think the vikings may have dubbed it black pool and that Baile Atha Cliath predated that, but that is just a guess.
I’m sure somebody else with more knowledge can fill in the details.
oh, forgot to say, the “ford of the hurdles” bit refers to a bridge made from hurdles or some such…
here is more info.
http://www.irelandnow.com/culture/placenames.html
Dubh linn is the literal translation of black pool, so I would think it comes from there.
If you look at your atlas, across the Irish Sea to England, you will see a town there, facing Dublin, called Blackpool.
Maybe there was a big black area of sea there, and both sides named the places accordingly.
As I am from Blackpool and now live in Dublin and my family name means “Son of the Viking” I am sure it is all down to some of my ancestors when they were stomping about these parts in times gone by!!
One of the real Irish people should be along shortly and maybe one of them can give the timelines for Baile Atha Cliath vs Dublin
Dublin is bastardised of Devlin (dubh linn,as croakdale mentions), which was the viking name for the place. Baile Ath Cliath means fort of Wattles, or hurdles.
Basically referring to a place where you can cross the Liffey.
The former is the Viking name, the latter is the Celtic name, who were here before the Vikings started raiding the place blind.
Concidering that they founded the place I find it hard to beleive that they raided it blind, though.
They were originally two different settlements - Dubh Linn south of the Liffey, Baile Átha Cliath north of it. I assume it became “Dublin” in English because it was the easier of the two to Anglicise.
And Floater, there were people in Dublin long before the Vikings, though admittedly not as many of them. Good concise history here.