MJD55

Dunsmore

As an English historian I find it very difficult to understand why place names in Devon, Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire would have names that are of Scottish origin. Can you explain your reasoning for saying why the Anglo-Saxon origin is incorrect please? -- Roleplayer (talk) 15:10, 19 November 2007 (UTC)`

The same reasons why places have names of French, Irish, Spanish,and German origin. My surname is Dunsmore and am well schooled in Scottish history. If you do a little research into the name it will not take long for you to discover the origin of the name for yourself. I am sure you will agree The name Dunsmore originating from Dunna's moor does not quite sound right. Dunsmore is an old Scottish name and is a sept of the Murray clan. It does make interesting reading to find out how they were involved in scottish war of independance, Jacobite rebellion etc... MJD55 (talk) 15:42, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

I am a Buckinghamshire historian. The Scots never had any sphere of influence in this area at all. It is ludicrous to suggest that a place in Buckinghamshire should have a name that I can prove dates back to at least the 12th century, that has an origin based on a language spoken hundreds of miles away.. Dunna was a common Anglo-Saxon name from this area, based on the original Brythonic name Doena. Dunna was a land owner in nearby Wendover, as confirmed by local documentation. In manorial records of the 12th century the Buckinghamshire Dunsmore was called Dunnasmor, which demonstrates the Anglo-Saxon origin. If you were a historian you would know that two places can have the same name, with entirely different origins. For example the common place name Walton can either refer to "walled settlement" or "settlement of the Walhs", Walh being the Anglo-Saxon name for the original Celts who inhabited Britain. It just depends where in the country the place is. Your Scottish Dunsmores may well have the origin that you are proposing, that does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that the English ones have the same origin. I am going to change the English place names back to the English origin of the name, please do not revert my edits again. -- Roleplayer (talk) 18:51, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

For a scientific example of two similar organisms having diverse origins, see Analogy (biology). Etymology runs by the same principle. By equal measure running a google search on "convergent etymology" will also demonstrate results. -- Roleplayer (talk) 19:12, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

thats a good arguement you should have stated that earlier rather than act like a stubborn pratt. Looks like the name is a coincidence john, We were both correct however I was unaware of another origin of the name apart from the scottish