New digital campaign to document Welsh place names

The Welsh Government have launched a campaign to digitally document Welsh place names asking the public to contribute to the project to help protect the linguistic heritage or Wales. A new website allows anyone to contribute place names that aren’t yet documented in Welsh on digital maps. The aim is to ensure that as many place names in Wales are collected, documented and shared in order to ensure use in the future.

Those leading the programme are keen to document the names of the following:

• mountains and hills
• streams and waterfalls
• fields and agricultural features
• landmarks and other geographic features
• houses
• businesses
• bridges
• old mills, works or factories
• ruins

If you or anyone in your family or one of your friends have names for these or any other geographical features, you can contribute to the project and document them online through a digital form. The information collected will be shared with Wikipedia, Mapio Cymru / Open Street Map and the List of Historic Place Names of Wales. The aim that the names appear on as many public resources as possible.

Those wanting to take part are also encouraged to provide additional information such as sound clips in order to educate others how to pronounce particular names and to provide phonetic spellings for these names. To learn more about the project and to see how you can contribute, follow this link to the Record Welsh Place Names page.