The Birthplace column of the Householders Schedules for the 1911 Census of Wales may present one of the greatest challenges to researchers. This applies to Welsh placenames entered in that column on schedules completed in English as well as schedules completed in Welsh.

To help decipher the place names, this section contains a List for each Welsh county of all the places that existed in 1911. If the county wasn't entered in the Birthplace column, the census clerks wrote a numeric code against the place name, and a list of these Birthplace Codes can be found on the 1911 Census web site and on Findmypast's Knowledge Base for the 1911 census. Because the Schedules have been filmed in colour, the numeric codes are more easily decipherable than on earlier censuses.

Against each place name in the List is a note of any significant alternative spelling, and the Registration District and Sub-District to which it was allocated at that time - bear in mind that some had changed Districts since the 1901 Census. Place names that may be found on Householders Schedules in Welsh but relating to a Birthplace Outside Wales are listed in a separate section.

If this is the first time you've viewed this page, please read the Introductory Notes that follow the table of County Lists below. They explain some of the variations in spelling and hyphenation from that used in the lists, and should help you to correctly interpret the place name entered in the Birthplace column.

Once you have read the Notes, clicking on any of the buttons in the table that follows (other than those temporarily marked "to follow") will take you to the available List of Place Names for the county concerned:
 

INTRODUCTORY NOTES ON USING THE LISTS OF PLACE NAMES
FOR ANY OF THE WELSH COUNTIES, LINKED TO ABOVE

MULTISYLLABIC NAMES: Most place names in the Welsh language are formed from nouns and adjectives describing their geographical feature or location, and therefore contain two or more syllables:
they are sometimes separated by spaces, to form separate words, e.g. 'Pwll meyric';
they are sometimes separated by hyphens, to form a hyphenated word, e.g. 'Pwll-meyric';
they are sometimes separated by neither, forming a non-hyphenated single word, e.g. 'Pwllmeyric';
a syllable after a space or hyphen sometimes starts instead with a capital letter, e.g. 'Pwll Meyric',
or 'Pwll-Meyric'.

Syllables in some place names are separated by the definite article 'the', which in Welsh is "y" or "yr":
this is sometimes separated by a space either side of it, e.g. 'Maes y cwmmer';
this is sometimes separated by a hyphen either side of it, e.g. 'Maes-y-cwmmer';
this is sometimes not separated but embedded in an unhyphenated single word, e.g. 'Maesycwmmer'.

All hyphens in Welsh place names have been omitted from the names in the Lists, except
where the syllable following normally starts with a capital letter, e.g. 'Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen';
where the hyphens are still used to separate the definite article, e.g. 'Castell-y-bwch'.
This avoids the need to include every possible variation which would lengthen the Lists unduly.

Names are listed in an alphabetical sequence ignoring any spaces, hyphens or capital letters. This makes it easier to search for a place name regardless of any of the above variations.

Names starting with the definite article "y" or "yr" are listed twice, e.g. as 'Y Fenni' and 'Fenny, Y'.
This is because the householder may have omitted any definite article in the Household Schedule.

ACCENTS: Any accents on vowels (à, á, â or ä) have been omitted from their spelling,
e.g. "Môn", the Welsh word for "Anglesey", is listed simply as "Mon".
This is because the householder may have omitted any accent in completing the Household Schedule.

WRITTEN AS PRONOUNCED: Place names in Welsh are often written down 'phonetically', i.e. spelt as they sound, and they can then become corrupted into the phonetic spelling as a variant of the original:
The 'single' Welsh character "dd" is pronounced as a hard "th" sound (as in 'this', not as in 'think').
So, for example, place names with "Llanddewi" (Church of St. David) were corrupted to "Llanthewi";
The letter "i" at the end of a Welsh word is pronounced as "ee" (like the 'y' at the end of 'penny').
So, for example, "Llanddewi" then becomes further corrupted into "Llanthewy";
The single letter "f" in a Welsh word is pronounced with a hard sound as "v" (it's the 'single' Welsh
character "ff" that is pronounced with the same soft sound as an "f" in English).
So, for example, "Llanfair" (Church of St. Mary) became corrupted to "Llanvair".

'ANGLICIZING' NAMES: Mispronunciation often shortens or simplifies the sound that should be made, because that takes less effort when talking. For example, "Caerdydd" became anglicized into "Cardiff":
'Caer' was simplified into 'Car';
the Welsh vowel "y", when in the last syllable of a word, is pronounced with a soft "i" (as in 'din');
the single Welsh character 'dd' at the end, instead of being pronounced with a hard "th" sound (as in
'this'), was simplifed into "th" as in 'think' and then, removing the use of the tongue, into "ff".
In the 1911 Census's official Report Tables, 'Caer' was simplified into 'Car' by misspelling 'Caernarfon' as 'Carnarvon' - even though the anglicized form that evolved retains the 'Caer' in 'Caernarvon'.

Finally, of course, English place names have been applied to places in Wales that are unrelated to their original Welsh names, such as 'Swansea' applied to 'Abertawe', and 'Newport' to 'Cas-gwent'.

MULTIPLE PLACES WITH THE SAME NAME: Place names in Welsh often reflect geographical descriptions of their locality, so the same name can occur multiple times for different places. Where this happens within the same county, the place name is annotated in the lists with the name of a large town to which it is near. The Registration Districts and Sub Districts (which Findmypast.com quote in the search results) are also listed against every place name, which will help distinguish between them.