Talk:Etymology of Aberdeen

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[edit] Further Information

Add any links to books/websites not referenced in the article but which contain (relevent) further information below:

• The New Statistical Account of Scotland: City of Aberdeen (1845): contains a long section on the Etymology of Aberdeen. A typed text version can be found at Electric Scotland and a copy of the original (full text view) in Google Books.
• The History of Aberdeen (1811) information on the Roman and Greek names of the city at Google Books.

[edit] Referencing

This page references to a dating website... bizarre I know, however! the page is quite informative so I think it has been copied from somewhere, but I do not know where.

Most of it is bumph so I have stripped out the important parts and reworded it (though still referenced). If anyone can find where the text in the reference originally came from it would be much better and more academic looking! Bobbacon 09:16, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

Have now removed the references to the dating website and anything that cannot be referenced to another source. Bobbacon 12:21, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

It was good for the start of the article, but pretty inaccurate in other regards. I'm not one hundred percent convinced by the argument that the last syllable is related to "da abhainn" in Gaidhlig, but rather it is probably a version of one of the rivers' names. --MacRusgail 16:28, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

OK, I know nothing about Gaidhlig so i've cut it out "The end element equivalent (of the "-deen" element) is most likely derived from the Galic "da-aevin" (or its variations "Da-abhuin" and "Da-awin"), meaning "the mouth of two rivers" or "space between two rivers". for now until a certain statement can be made. Bobbacon 18:46, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

The English and the Gaidhlig are pretty much cognate, so I think you can say that they come from the same Brythonic original...--MacRusgail 11:44, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

(realign) I believe I have found where the dating website got its information from- an 1875 book; "A New History of Aberdeenshire" by Alexander Smith. I came across it on Google Books after typing in 'Abredeam' which is a name referred to in its text. After searching within the book for "Buchanan" who is quoted as the source for that particular name it comes up with more identical paragraphs to the dating site. Although I can only see a small paragraph in Google books I am almost certain it is the original source. From the page I will presume that "Buchanan" referes to a "George Buchanan" who in another part of the book is refered to in relation to the rivers Dee and Don.

Indeed I found a book by George Buchanan which has details on the name of Aberdeen (though not specifically "Abredeam"), again at Google Books (this links to the exact page of Aberdeen references). Bobbacon 08:38, 8 June 2007 (UTC)