Seine - Origin of The Name

Origin of The Name

The name "Seine" comes from the Latin Sequana. Some have argued that Sicauna is cognate to the name of Saône River. However, a suggested relationship to the River Shannon in Ireland is unlikely, given the very different forms of the two. (Gaelic an tSiona, dative Sionainn, is from Prehistoric Irish *Sinona. Another proposal has it that Sequana is the Latin version of the Gaulish Issicauna Lower-Icauna, which would be the diminutive of Icauna, which was the Gaulish name of the Yonne River.) Some believe the ancient Gauls considered the Seine to be a tributary of the Yonne, which indeed presents a greater average discharge than the Seine. (The river flowing through Paris would be called Yonne if the standard rules of geography were applied.)

Some identify the river Sikanos, origin (according to Thucydides) of the Sicanoi of Sikelia (Sicily), with the river Sequana (Seine).

According to Pierre-Yves Lambert, a specialist of the Gaulish language, Sequana retains QV, that is unusual in Gaulish, which is normally a P-Celtic language, but he compares with the month name EQVOS, read on the Coligny Calendar. The name of the Gaulish tribe Sequani derives from it.

The digram QV of Sequana could recover a whole syllable, that is to say, like ucuetis, but its meaning remains unknown.