Why do towns start with bally in northern ireland. i.e ballykinler, ballymoney etc?

Question

Why do towns start with bally in northern ireland. i.e ballykinler, ballymoney etc?

Answer 1

not all towns in northern Ireland stat with bally

Answer 2

Up Ballybofey!! in Donegal!! (",)

not everywhere starts with ..."bally".... it means a homeplace or town !! x(",)x

Answer 3

it comes from 'baile' (pronounced ball-ya) meaning town

Answer 4

Bally is an extremely common prefix to town names in Ireland, and is derived from the Gaelic phrase 'Baile na', meaning 'place of'. It is not quite right to translate it 'town of', as there were few, if any, towns in Ireland at the time these names were formed. For example, Ballyjamesduff [Place of James Duff] (county Cavan), Ballymoney (county Londonderry). The Irish name for the site of present-day Dublin was 'Baile Átha Cliath', which, if anglicised, would be spelt something like 'Ballycleeagh'. Note that 'Dublin' is actually a Viking word

Answer 5

I believe its Irish for a market. So 'Ballykissangel' means that the town of Kissangel had a market at one time.

Answer 6

In the south too.  It's the English attempt at Baile meaning castle or stronghold.

Answer 7

Bally comes from the Irish word Báile meaning homeplace or town.

Answer 8

if you are asking about places in Northern Ireland

then ask the question in the right category

this category is for the Irish Free State

NI is in the UK

Answer 9

Town of .Thats what it means.............................

Answer 10

Because the are

why is portsmouth not called portstoe

Sheffield not call shefwood

Answer 11

There are some western nows with the word bally in front like Ballybunion  Bally is Baile in Irish. Its means town of or settlement of Ballybunion mean town or settlement of he Bunyun family.