What was the meaning behind the word "Burg" for big battles of towns.

England is very confusing compared to Scotland and Wales we have a whole host of names for towns unlike other parts of the UK.

Anything with By at the end like Kirkby is Viking in origin most are in the North due to the Dane Law.

My own town of Manchester is Roman in origin same for Chester , Colchester etc.

Our road system or the A roads are still the old Roman roads.

If you look at the North of England compared to the South you will see vastly more Saxon names in the South and much more Viking names in the North with Roman towns in both the North and South.

Nobody wanted Wales :giggle: which by the way means Foreigner in the Norse tongue.
 
Many people think of Germanic peoples as originating in/around Germany.
All correct - and we must keep in mind that the idea of a "Germany" is only about 200 years old. There used to be a lot of small kingdoms and duchies before - they only shared the common language, which at that time was not so far away from English. The Anglo-Saxons came from a (now totally insignificant) part of northern Germany named Angeln. And the dialect (some say it is a language of its own, Plattdeutsch) that is spoken there has a lot of words that are the same in English, e.g. "gift".
 
All correct - and we must keep in mind that the idea of a "Germany" is only about 200 years old. There used to be a lot of small kingdoms and duchies before - they only shared the common language, which at that time was not so far away from English. The Anglo-Saxons came from a (now totally insignificant) part of northern Germany named Angeln. And the dialect (some say it is a language of its own, Plattdeutsch) that is spoken there has a lot of words that are the same in English, e.g. "gift".

Yeah , English is made up of old English , Norse , Germanic and French , We also have thee most Slang out of any other Language.

Funny enough my friend and i who both served in Germany got into a terrible row one night in Soest in a bar with quite a few German Locals we were asked to leave after my friend caught the attention of a lovely lady who was married to the bar owner i always remember him shaking his fist and calling us Island Monkeys and Inbreeds i suppose he wasn't far off in his assessment.

One Year later i attended the wedding of my friend and the lovely lady from the bar as far as I'm aware they are still happily married.
 
Lynchburg sounds like it got it's name from either a lynching or a guy named Lynch.
Interestingly back before the Revolution, there was a man named Lynch in Virginia that got with other colonists to decry 'Torie' raids and confiscation being done against them. They came up with the 'Lynch Law' which enforced revenge against the British. Lynch eventually made his way down to Flat Rock, South Carolina, and the old Lynch Cemetery is located there. I chanced upon it back in 1999 on my trek out to Tennessee. Two Lynchburg's I know of; the first in Virginia where I was born, and the second here in Tennessee close by along with Winchester, another Virginia transplant.
Lubliner.
 
Also, here's something random.

The City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has an "h" on the end of it. Other places named "Pittsburg" in other states (such as "Pittsburg Landing" in Tennessee) don't have the "h." Other burg's (such as "Gettysburg, Pennsylvania") don't have an "h."

I can tell when somebody is not familiar with the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area if they spell the name of the city without an "h."
I wonder if that has to do with a lack of standardized spelling when those settlements were created as to whether or not they had an 'h' or not?

Kearney, Nebraska is a misspelling of the Kearny family name. Named after Stephen Watts Kearny, and uncle to Civil War general Phillip Kearny, got an 'e' added to the name from a post office error and it stuck.
 
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