Cwmbran - Etymology

Etymology

Unlike other areas of Wales that have Anglicised versions of place names, such as Caerdydd to Cardiff, Cwmbrân (meaning Crow Valley in English) is the official name in both Welsh and English; it has simply been common practice to ignore diacritics in written English. It remains true, nevertheless, that this new town created in 1949 was given a Welsh name, Cwmbrân; the correct spelling of which is now, with advances in typography, probably the form most frequently to be seen in official usage. Following the passing of the 1946 New Towns' Act, ministries and county councils were asked to nominate sites. For Wales, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government proposed Church Village and Cwmbrân. The Church Village proposal was vetoed by the Ministry of Power as new housing there would have interfered with plans for the expansion of coalmining in the area; however, "Cwmbrân" was passed in 1949. The BBC notes, "Cwmbrân (valley of the river Brân) was the name given to a new town created in 1949 under the New Towns Act 1946. It took the name of the older village located in the valley Cwm Brân which had developed around tinplate works and forges of the Cwmbran Iron Co."

Whether or not the iron company cared, or 1940s British typewriters and typesetters were capable of easily producing the necessary character, Brân was, and is, the name of the stream running through the valley, and Cwmbrân the name of the community which arose there. It is a convention in Welsh toponymy that when the reference is to a natural feature the words are written separately (e.g. Cwm Brân : valley of the Brân); when they refer to a settlement named after that feature the words are joined up (Cwmbrân). Another example: Pont ar Dawe ("bridge on the Tawe": the bridge itself) / Pontardawe (the village that grew up by the bridge).