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• Place names

Names from historical writing:

The following appear as names for Edinburgh. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

• The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
• Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
• References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.

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Names for administrative units:

These names were used for units associated with Edinburgh. Click on the links for details of the units and their names:

Name	Unit Type	Source
00QP	District/Unitary Authority (City)	Census of Population (2001 Key Statistics)
CANONGATE	Scottish Parish	1851 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
CENTRAL EDINBURGH	Constituency (BCon/PBDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
CITY OF EDINBURGH	District/Unitary Authority (City)	Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland (Information Paper: Local government area boundaries in Scotland: 1995 onwards)
	Scottish County (ScoCofC)	The Scottish Archive Network, Scottish Archives Network Gazetteer
EAST EDINBURGH	Constituency (BCon/PBDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
EDINBURGH	1841 Occupation reporting area	1841 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Occupation Abstract'.
	Constituency (PBCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	District/Unitary Authority (City)	Census of Population (2001 Key Statistics)
	Scottish Burgh/District (Burgh)	1851 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
	Scottish County (ScoCofC)	The Scottish Archive Network, Scottish Archives Network Gazetteer
	Scottish Parish	1951 Census of Scotland, Table 1, 'Comparison of population, density per 100 acres, and houses with 1931', for 'Burghs, Districts of Counties and CPs'.
	Urban Labour Market	Great Britain Historical GIS Project
EDINBURGH AND ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITIES	Constituency (UniCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
EDINBURGH CENTRAL	Constituency (BCon/PBDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
EDINBURGH CITY	Scottish County (ScoCofC)	1951 Census of Scotland, Table 1, 'Comparison of population, density per 100 acres, and houses with 1931', for 'Burghs, Districts of Counties and CPs'.
EDINBURGH CITY OF	District/Unitary Authority (City)	Census of Population (2001 Key Statistics)
EDINBURGH EAST	Constituency (BCon/PBDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	Constituency (BCon)	Boundary Commission for Scotland Information Paper. Westminster Parliament constituencies 2005 onwards
EDINBURGH EAST AND MUSSELBURGH	Constituency (BCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
EDINBURGH INC LEITH AND PORTOBELLO	Urban Labour Market	Ministry of Labour, Labour Gazette (H.M.S.O.)
EDINBURGH NO 1 EAST	Constituency (BCon/PBDivCon)	1891 Census of Scotland, Table 5, 'The Parliamentary, Royal, and Police Burghs, also the Parliamentary Districts of Burghs and of Counties, and Wards of Burghs showing the number of Families, of Houses Inhabited, Uninhabited, and Building; the number of the total Population and of each Sex; the number of Persons speaking Gaelic only, and Gaelic and English, and the number of Rooms with Windows'.
EDINBURGH NO 2 WEST	Constituency (PBDivCon/BCon)	1891 Census of Scotland, Table 5, 'The Parliamentary, Royal, and Police Burghs, also the Parliamentary Districts of Burghs and of Counties, and Wards of Burghs showing the number of Families, of Houses Inhabited, Uninhabited, and Building; the number of the total Population and of each Sex; the number of Persons speaking Gaelic only, and Gaelic and English, and the number of Rooms with Windows'.
EDINBURGH NO 3 CENTRAL	Constituency (BCon/PBDivCon)	1891 Census of Scotland, Table 5, 'The Parliamentary, Royal, and Police Burghs, also the Parliamentary Districts of Burghs and of Counties, and Wards of Burghs showing the number of Families, of Houses Inhabited, Uninhabited, and Building; the number of the total Population and of each Sex; the number of Persons speaking Gaelic only, and Gaelic and English, and the number of Rooms with Windows'.
EDINBURGH NO 4 SOUTH	Constituency (BCon/PBDivCon)	1891 Census of Scotland, Table 5, 'The Parliamentary, Royal, and Police Burghs, also the Parliamentary Districts of Burghs and of Counties, and Wards of Burghs showing the number of Families, of Houses Inhabited, Uninhabited, and Building; the number of the total Population and of each Sex; the number of Persons speaking Gaelic only, and Gaelic and English, and the number of Rooms with Windows'.
EDINBURGH NORTH	Constituency (BCon/PBDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
EDINBURGH NORTH AND LEITH	Constituency (BCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
EDINBURGH PENTLANDS	Constituency (BCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
EDINBURGH SOUTH	Constituency (BCon/PBDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
EDINBURGH SOUTH WEST	Constituency (BCon)	Boundary Commission for Scotland Information Paper. Westminster Parliament constituencies 2005 onwards
EDINBURGH SUBURBS	1841 Occupation reporting area	1841 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Occupation Abstract'.
EDINBURGH WEST	Constituency (PBDivCon/BCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
LEITH NORTH	Scottish Parish	1831 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
LEITH SOUTH	Scottish Parish	1831 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
NORTH LEITH	Scottish Parish	1851 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
PENTLANDS	Constituency (BCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
PORTSBURGH	Scottish Burgh/District (Burgh)	The Scottish Archive Network, Scottish Archives Network Gazetteer
S621487	Scottish County (ScoCofC)
SOUTH EDINBURGH	Constituency (BCon/PBDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
SOUTH LEITH	Scottish Parish	1851 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
ST CUTHBERT	Scottish Parish	1851 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
ST CUTHBERTS AND CANONGATE COMBINATION	Scottish Parish	Registrar-General for Scotland, Annual Report (HMSO)
ST CUTHBERTS COMB	Scottish Parish	Local Government Board for Scotland, Local Government Board for Scotland Annual Report (H.M.S.O.)
ST CUTHBERTS COMBINATION	Scottish Parish	Registrar-General for Scotland, Annual Report (HMSO)
WEST EDINBURGH	Constituency (PBDivCon/BCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)

NB: These are all the names of all the administrative units which we have associated with Edinburgh, and you must judge whether all or even any of them are variant names for the place. They may well include the names of other locations or areas:

• For cities, the associated administrative units will usually include parishes, especially ecclesiastical parishes, one of whose names is the name of the city followed by a saint's dedication, with just the saint's name as another variant. Parish names will sometimes also include "places" within towns.
• Districts usually contain more than one settlement, and some districts had their names changed to take the name of a completely different settlement. As we link each administrative unit to just one of our "places", usually the last place the unit was named after, in these cases the name for a completely different place will appear on this page.
• Similarly, a unit may sometimes be named after a particular settlement it contains and sometimes to indicate its location within a higher level unit. This was very common among British parliamentary constituencies in rural areas, one name referring to their main town and another indicating that they were in, say, the southern part of the relevant county.



Every name listed here is linked to the particular historical source in which it appears, but we cannot claim that these are all the historical names of Edinburgh, or that our references are to the first usage of the names. Similarly, we have tried to ensure that names included here are not transcription errors by ourselves, but it is possible they are the result of errors made when the historical sources were printed, or the result of visiting authors or census officials mis-hearing local names.

How to reference this page:



GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Edinburgh in Scotland | Place names, A Vision of Britain through Time.

URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/16316/names

Date accessed: 17th January 2025