Welsh placenames

[Top-of-the-hill]

   The grandchildren have just been to North Wales, and we were talking about placenames. I know there are many beginning with Llan, which on-line translators have as Church. Is this correct? There are also many Llanfihangels, and I have a vague memory that the second element of this is Michael. Am I right?

[Gadget]

Llan can be more than Church. *It refers to the area around the Church - the village. Llanfihangel means the church of St Michael

* add -  to clarify, used on it's own it means the village cf pentre

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Thanks Gadget! Glad I remembered Michael correctly.

[Ian999]

To add to Gadget's translation, it makes a bit more sense when you think of it as "Church of St Michael the Archangel", and yes there are dozens of them.

[Gadget]

Mihangel* is the usual translation of Michael in Welsh and angel is, I think, the same in both languages. Although there are variations 

* the M is soft mutated to  F after Llan

This takes me back to 1st year grammar school - declining the mutations 

Add - try saying LlanFihangel and LlanMihangel and see what sounds best 

[Llwyd]

The dreaded mutations - treigladau - the bane of a Welsh learners life.