Look at these three names: Waterford, Wexford and Carlingford. Say them slowly together. Something is the same in all three. It looks like an English word, but in these names it came from somewhere older.
Who named these towns, and what were they looking at when they chose the names?
Watch as we tap a town on the map and the name comes apart. Listen for the piece that means an inlet where a ship could land. The ending that looks like English ford is actually something older.
On the Europe map, we start in Norway and follow the sea toward Ireland. Pause at each coast we meet. Notice which languages live there today, then link that journey back to the harbour names we just opened.
Open your copy. Write three town names we opened today. Beside each one, write what the hidden Norse piece means in plain English (for example: inlet for ships).
Look at fjörðr on the board: that is the Old Norse word those -ford endings come from. You only need to notice it; you do not have to spell the special marks from memory.
Waterford, Wexford and Carlingford were named by Norse settlers over a thousand years ago. The people who gave those names arrived by sea, first as raiders and later as traders who built towns and stayed.
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