Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time I cast my net a little wider. As English place names share some links to other tongues it would be interesting to see if any of the elements contributing to our place names could be found elsewhere. Continuing an alphabetical tour of the world and a look at Liechtenstein's place names. Here instead of cities we will look at the municipalities.
Liechtenstein gets its name from the family from Liechtenstein Castle in Austria, itself named because of its 'bright stone', which is exactly what the name means.
Ruggell is thought to be from the Latin for 'clearing the land', something which would have happened before settlement began.
Planken comes from the Latin and describes the region of 'rising meadows'.
Eschen is simply 'the place of the ash trees'.
Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.
