Township: Barrapol,Ceann a’ Bharra

Map Reference: Kenavara 134

Name Type: cliff

Meaning: There are at least three possible reconstructions for the specific:
• The male ON personal name H?gni. Högna boði is a skerry name in the Faroe Islands (Jakobsen 1936, 151). ‘In Shetland H?gni might spring from an original *Hákonar’ (Jakobsen 1936, 151). There is a Hunnesvika in Volda, Norway (NG)
• ON hund ‘dog’. This can have a number of other meanings. ‘In Norway the element Hund- figures in several place-names. The meaning is not altogether clear but Professor Magnus Olsen suggests that in such names we may have an ON term signifying a catch, capture, a ’catching place’ or fishing place’ (Marwick 1947, 57). ‘Hunn and hund are rather common elements in coastal names in Norway. They are sometimes interpreted as indicating a good catch (see Hunn NSL: 227), sometimes as warning names, indicating shoals and skerries (Hundhammeren). Whatever the original etymology, the element may have been perceived as hund ‘dog’ by the users’ (Sandnes 2010a, 210). ‘[ON Hundr ‘wild dog’] can also be used figuratively to indicate danger, particularly in the case of islets or skerries’ (Macniven 2015, 127)
• The male ON personal name Hundi (Macniven 2015, 78). In the Laxdæla saga, ‘another of [Aud’s] freed slaves was called Hundi, a Scotsman by birth’ (Byock, 2001, 87), and the Orkneyinga saga details the story of Holbodi Hundason, who was a chieftain on Tiree around 1135. Hundi is a common element in Shetland, with many examples of Hundi Geo and a Hundi Stack (SP); Hundi occurs as a specific in Norway, such as Hundaviki (NG); and Hundastapi is a farm name in (SAM).
Topographically, the generic is most likely to be with ON sker ‘skerry’. ON gerði ‘fence, field’ is possible phonologically with the genitive morpheme /s/, but an enclosure or farm name is less likely on this wild headland.

Other Forms:

Related Places: Hùinisdeir, vaul.

Information:

Local Form:

Languages : Norse, Gaelic

Informants: William MacLean, Barrapol, 7/1997

Informant 2: Hugh MacLean, Barrapol, collected by Ailean Boyd