Great Orme - Origin of The Word 'Orme'

Origin of The Word 'Orme'

Both the Great and Little Ormes have been etymologised to the Old Norse word for sea serpent (transliterated to urm or orm - the English word worm having the same origin). Marauding Vikings are thus said to have believed that the Ormes (and the wider Creuddyn peninsula) resembled a sea serpent - with the Great Orme being the serpent's head - as their boats came in. But it is very difficult to substantiate this belief because the Vikings left us no written texts, and although they certainly raided the area they do not appear to have colonised it. There are other Norse names in the kingdom of Gwynedd (such as Point of Ayr), but etymology is an imprecise tool.

Until the coming of tourism in the 19th century (and the first tourists and developers came by sea), the name used for the wider peninsula as a whole was usually Creuddyn (the name of the medieval cwmwd in the area) but Y Gogarth or Pen y Gogarth for the Orme itself, and the name Orme appears to have been used for the headland as seen from the sea. This is the case in the "Plan of the Bay & Harbour of Conway in Caernarvon Shire" by Lewis Morris and published in 1748, which map boldly shows the name "CREUDDYN" in the body of the peninsula and applies the name "Orme's Head" beyond the Great Orme headland at its north-westerly seaward point.