Moel Famau - Name

Name

There has been some confusion over the spelling of the name and both 'Moel Fama' and 'Moel Famau' are in common use. The first word moel is a common Welsh place-name element meaning 'a bare hill'.

That the second element is 'Fama' rather than 'Famau' is shown by the earliest attested forms, which date back to the fourteenth century. The local pronuciation is also consistently . If the second element were 'Famau', one would expect to find examples of the pronunciation . The meaning of the 'Fama' is somewhat uncertain, but it is probably a lenited form of a personal name, 'Mama'.

The alternative form 'Moel Famau' is a result of re-interpreting the second element as the lenited form of the common noun mamau, meaning 'mothers'. As a result, 'Moel Famau' is sometimes said to mean 'Mothers' Hill'. 'Moel Famau' is found as early as the eighteenth century, and is still common today. Nevertheless, the standard reference work on Welsh place-names lists 'Moel Fama' as the correct form.