Borders are designed to keep people in or to keep people out. We see them everywhere in history: walls, fences, hedges, barbed wire, scorched earth, chicken wire or place names. There are quite a few Breton place names that speak of borders and boundaries. I've listed a few of them below and put some of them together in the map above. 22 (Cotes d'Armor) ÉVRAN Evrann [Ivran/Ivram, 12 th C] ‘Borderland’ From G: iguoranda / equoranda ‘limit’, ‘boundary’ (of a city/region). Iguoranda/Equoranda refers to ‘limits’ and ‘frontiers’ and often corresponds to the boundary between two Gaulish tribes. Évran was on the border between the Redones and Coriosolites, representing a frontier zone between the Gallo-Roman cities of Rennes and Corseul. It now hugs the borderline between the departments of Île-et-Vilaine (35) and Côtes d’Armor (22). See: Évriguet (56) ; Yvrandes (Normandy); Iguerande (Burgundy). 29 (...
The Origins and Place Names of Brittany