Strange Maps is one of my favourite quirky wee blogs, and yesterday it featured the Atlas of True Names, where familiar placenames are given in their original meaning. A few English placenames survive unchanged - Blackpool, Newcastle, Oxford - but none do in Scotland, and many are picturesque.
I had thought I lived in Edwin's Burgh, but the cartographers confess only an 80% accuracy rate, so don't complain to me about errors. I would also be surprised if Orkney really is properly understood to be the Isles of the Sea Monsters, but I do like living by the Firth of Silence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_Edinburgh
First paragrpah:
The etymology of Edinburgh shows that the origin of the city's name is understood to come from the Brythonic Din Eidyn (Fort of Eidyn) from the time when it was a Gododdin hillfort.[1][dubious – discuss] In the 1st century the Romans recorded the Votadini as a Brythonic tribe in the area, and about 600 A.D. the poem Y Gododdin, using the Brythonic form of that name, describes warriors feasting "in Eidin's great hall".[dubious – discuss][1] After it was besieged[citation needed] by the Bernician Angles, the name changed[dubious – discuss] to Edin-burh, which some have argued derives from the Anglo-Saxon for "Edwin's fort", possibly derived from the 7th century king Edwin of Northumbria. However, since the name apparently[citation needed] predates King Edwin, this is highly unlikely[citation needed]. The burgh element means "fortress" or "group of buildings", i.e. a town or city and is akin to the German burg, Latin parcus, Greek pyrgos etc.