(the) town(land) of —?

The standard anglicised form of this place-name could certainly be understood to reflect derivation from ‘Baile bro’ [Baile Bró] “the town of the quern or handmill” as suggested by O’Donovan (11). Joyce (iii pp.73‒74: see also p.13) agrees, but notes that there is no reflex of the final consonant of brón, the expected gen. sg. form of bró “quern”, in the historical forms. Indeed, we feel that this derivation is likely to be incorrect.

In analysing the evidence, it is difficult to ascertain whether the examples that end in -gh (4, 6–8) reflect Irish -ch or whether that termination is simply a late addition to the anglicised form of the name, as found elsewhere (e.g. ‘Ballintleagh’ < Baile an tSléibhe; see BALLINTLEA, par. Kilnahue). It would be inadvisable, therefore, to use these spellings as a diagnostic in this instance. A number of alternative precursors can be suggested: Baile Brogha “town(land) of (the) farmland” (gen. sg. broga > Mod.Ir. brogha: see DIL mruig “a piece of inhabited or cultivated land, farmland”), Baile Bróigh “town(land) of the dirt” (see Dinneen brógh “dirt”), or Baile Broibh (Brobh) “town(land) of (the) rush(es), salt-marsh(es)” (see Dinneen, FGB brobh “a rush, a salt-marsh”). This townland bordered an inlet from Wexford Harbour prior to land reclamation and it contains lands made up of marine sediment (see OS 6″ first edition; epa.ie). This may slightly favour derivation from brobh, but the etymology is still far from certain. The Irish form proposed here is the phonetic approximation Baile Bró.

[It has been suggested that the second element of the name is Old Norse brú “bridge”. However, as this place-name is clearly an Irish coinage and given that fact that both elements can be explained within the parameters of that language — albeit with some doubt about the exact form of the qualifier — reference to the Old Norse lexicon is not necessary. There is no evidence that any word such as ON brú was ever borrowed into Irish, nor is there anything to suggest the existence of an Old Norse place-name *Brú on this spot to which the Irish generic element baile was later added.]

Other instances of bró as a specific element include Mullinabro/Muileann na Bró and Curraghcloonabro/Currach Chluain na Bró, in Kilkenny and Cork respectively (see logainm.ie). The word bró “quern” appears to occur in the now-defunct minor name ‘Knocnebrone’ < Cnoc na Brón “the hill of the quern-stone” (CS p.270) in Clone (par.) near Enniscorthy.

[Excerpt from Logainmneacha na hÉireann IV: Townland Names of County Wexford, 2016]