Do we live in Giudi, not Stirling?
Council archaeologist Murray Cook on what’s in a name
We all say Stirling several times a day, but what does it mean?
The first recorded version, ‘Striuelin’dates from around 1124, when the burgh was established by David I.
Lots of people think it’s older and dates to the period around AD 600-900 when what had been the British province of Manau, was conquered by the Angles from the south who were then pushed out by Picts from the north.
The Britons reacted to this by burning down Dunblane, before being brought to heel by Kenneth McAlpine, the first king of Scotland….then the Vikings arrived!
Under this theory, because of all of this bloodshed, Stirling might be‘Striveling’ing is old English for place, and ‘strive’is a synonym for strife or conflict, so‘Place of Conflict’.
This is my favourite interpretation.
A more recent theory, by Professor Thomas Owen Clancy of Glasgow University, looks at the possible Gaelic roots of Stirling (‘srib-linn’: stream pool, although the modern Gaelic rendering is Sruighlea).
He connects it to the place at which the River Forth became tidal, or perhaps better, the uppermost reach of the Forth estuary being navigable, possibly reflecting an early harbour here.
Significantly, this means that‘Stirling’refers to the River Forth and not the town, which was named subsequently for its place on the river.
Of course this might mean that Stirling had an older name, one that reflected the settlement and not the river.
There is one possibility, a name mentioned by the Northumbrian monk, Bede, around AD 700, he talked about‘urbs Giudi’, the City of Giudi and he named the Firth of Forth, the Sea of Giudi.
We are not precisely certain but perhaps we don’t live in Stirling at all, perhaps we live in Giudi.
Anyone for a rebranding exercise?