STIRLING/"STRIVELIN": A THOROUGHLY BRITISH, NOT GAELIC, PLACE-NAME

Professor Thomas Owen Clancy is, at present, usually considered the man who has produced the best etymology for the obscure place-name Stirling.  For his study on this topic, see http://www.clanntuirc.co.uk/JSNS/V11/JSNS11%20Clancy.pdf.

The idea is that Stirling or "Strivelin" is from Gaelic srib-linn, 'stream-pool.' This derivation has gained traction in recent years, despite the originator's own confession that srib "is not a common place-name element in either Ireland or Scotland".  In addition, Clancy must account for why the name does not apply to Stirling Rock:

"The original srib-linn, then, would refer to this point on the river (perhaps then meaning ‘highest navigable point on an estuary’, or referring to a river-pool allowing harbourage), rather than any land feature such as the castle rock which overlooks it."

Northern British place-name expert Alan James, author of BLITON, commented thusly (via personal communication) on Clancy's proposed form:

"On the whole, I think it's quite doubtful, but in phonetic terms, it works."

Clancy's Gaelic etymology for Stirling allows him to suggest that the original British name for the place was Iudeu, a name I have recently been able to associate fairly strongly with Edinburgh (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2021/04/bedes-urbs-giudi-and-udd-urfai-of-eidyn.html).  In Clancy's words:

"I noted at the outset that this has consequences of a sort for a separate set of debates. These relate to the question of whether Bede’s urbs Giudi (and the  forms in other texts related to it, such as Iudeu, Iuddew) was Castle Rock at Stirling (see most fully Fraser 2008). Whilst the present note does not directly address that question, it does clear away one problematic sub-argument, which is the suggestion that that location could not be Giudi because it already had a different, Brittonic name, the name lying behind Stirling. This note demonstrates that, whatever the location of urbs Giudi, the name Stirling was Gaelic, referred to the river Forth, and was not originally the name of Castle Rock."

Well, I think we can rather easily account for Stirling or Strivelin being a British name - and that we can, in fact, supply a known precedent from Wales in support of such a contention.

I had independently found some interesting place-names in Merionethshire: Streflyn, Strevlin, Ystreflyn, Ystrevlyn, etc.  Alan James knew of these:

"I notice in AMR there is an Ystreflin in Llanycil, and Llysystreflin in Llanuwchllyn, both in Merioneth."

I went ahead and asked my friend James at Historic Place-Names of Wales (https://historicplacenames.rcahmw.gov.uk/) what the etymology of these places might be.  He responded:

"According to our Merioneth Inventory, the correct form of Streflyn is Istreflyn, 'the lower holding by the lake'. Since two of the Commissioners were John Rhys and Edward Annwyl, I think we can be reasonably confident in that analysis."

From  https://archive.org/stream/inventoryofanci06roya/inventoryofanci06roya_djvu.txt:

* The proper form of Streflyn is Istreflyn, ' the lower tref of the lake.' The name Llystreflyn occurs in Pub. Rec. Office : Land Rev. Misc. Books, vol. 236 ; but this may be an error, for Edward Lhuyd about the year 1700 does not give such a name amongst the houses of the parish. Maestron is so called in the same document, as also in the Survey of 7 Henry V (Rec. Caern., 262); but in Pub. Rec. Office : Rentals and Surveys, 24 Eliz., 91, 173, it is Maestrave (Maes-tref). The Is and Uwch mynydd refer to the Arenigs. Bedwarian [was formerly also a township of Llanycil parish.

I double-checked the spelling in the Melville Richards Archives (http://www.e-gymraeg.co.uk/enwaulleoedd/amr/cronfa_en.aspx):

ISTREFLYN LLANYCIL Meironeth IAMW INVENTORIES OF THE COMMISSION OF ANCIENT MONUMENTS IN WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE vi.145

The sense of Is Tref Llyn as applied to Stirling would doubtless be the town below Castle Rock next to the pool in the river.  Such a derivation thus allows us to identify both the original settlement atop the Rock, as well as the town that grew up below it next to the said pool. In other words, Stirling was 'the lower town at the pool', the upper town being on the Rock itself.  

Best of all, Istreflyn for Stirling adheres to the phonological requirements for the place-name as defined by Clancy.   There is a problem with the constant [i] in Strivelin, rather than the [e] we would expect from tref.  Twenty-two spellings with Striu- versus only two with Streu-. But I think it is reasonable to assume that a [I]stref would have been assimilated to srib by Gaelic speakers.  Ironically, leading Clancy to deduce that srib must be the original first element of the place-name.