King Water Valley (photo courtesy Andrew Smith)
According to the early Welsh genealogies, Gwenddolau ('white dales'), who belonged at Carwinley in Cumbria, was the son of Ceidio. Ceidio as a name is a hypocoristic form of a longer two-part name that begins with *cad-, 'battle.'
Recently, I thought to look for a relic of Ceidio in place-names. As he was a son of the Arthwys who stands for the *Artenses or People of the Bear of the Irthing Valley, my attention was caught at first by Powcady between the King Water and the Cambeck not far from the Camboglanna Roman fort at Castlesteads. Early forms for Powcady were late: Pocadie, Pokeadam. But Alan James proposed that this contained a typical pol- element 'pool in a stream, stream' plus cad-, 'battle', plus perhaps a -ou plural suffix. I wondered if it could instead contain the name Ceidio/Keidyaw/Ceidiaw.
Powcady is at a footbridge over Peglands Beck, which was earlier known as Polterkened. See
As Polterkened (or at least Kened, as polter may have been added later) was this stream's ancient name, a *pol- of a different name on the same watercourse would designate a pool in this location. I asked Alan James whether this could be 'Ceidio's Pool.' He responded:
"Poll Ceidio isn't impossible, though it should be lenited *Geidio (but lenition is a bit iffy in Cumbric pns). So, no, not impossible."
I would very tentatively propose, therefore, that the name Ceidio son of Arthwys/Artenses is preserved at Powcady.
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