Dunfermline, Fife : Place names

Names from historical writing:

The following appear as names for Dunfermline. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name	Author	Source
DUMFERMLINE	James Boswell	The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (Oxford, Mississippi, 2004).
DUMFERMLINE	Thomas Pennant	A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
DUMFERMLING	Daniel Defoe	A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
DUNFERMLINE	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
DUNFERMLINE	F.H. Groome	Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
DUNFERMLING	William Camden	Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.

Names for administrative units:

These names were used for units associated with Dunfermline. Click on the links for details of the units and their names:

Name	Unit Type	Source
DUMFERMLINE	Urban Labour Market	Ministry of Labour, Labour Gazette (H.M.S.O.)
DUNFERMLINE	1841 Occupation reporting area	1841 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Occupation Abstract'.
	Built-up Area	National Records of Scotland, National Records of Scotland web site (2022 Census Settlement boundaries)
	Constituency (DistBCon/BCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	Constituency (CCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	Scottish Burgh/District (Burgh)	1951 Census of Scotland, Table 1, 'Comparison of population, density per 100 acres, and houses with 1931', for 'Burghs, Districts of Counties and CPs'.
	Scottish Burgh/District (DoC)	1971 Census of Scotland, Table 25, 'Enumerated households by tenure and household amenities', for 'County, local authority areas'.
	Scottish Parish	1951 Census of Scotland, Table 1, 'Comparison of population, density per 100 acres, and houses with 1931', for 'Burghs, Districts of Counties and CPs'.
	Urban Labour Market	Great Britain Historical GIS Project
DUNFERMLINE AND DISTRICT	Urban Labour Market	Ministry of Labour, Labour Gazette (H.M.S.O.)
DUNFERMLINE AND DOLLAR	Constituency (CCon)	House of Commons Library, Boundary review 2023: Which seats will change in the UK?
DUNFERMLINE AND WEST FIFE	Constituency (CCon)	Boundary Commission for Scotland Information Paper. Westminster Parliament constituencies 2005 onwards
DUNFERMLINE BURGHS	Constituency (DistBCon/BCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
DUNFERMLINE BURNTISLAND COWDENBEATH AND INVERKEITHING	Urban Labour Market	Ministry of Labour, Labour Gazette (H.M.S.O.)
DUNFERMLINE CENTRAL	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
DUNFERMLINE EAST	Constituency (CCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
DUNFERMLINE NORTH	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
DUNFERMLINE SOUTH	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
DUNFERMLINE WEST	Constituency (CCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
EAST DUNFERMLINE	Constituency (CCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
S13002946	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
S13002947	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
S13002948	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
S14000017	Constituency (CCon)	House of Commons Library, Boundary review 2023: Which seats will change in the UK?
S14000076	Constituency (CCon)	House of Commons Library, Boundary review 2023: Which seats will change in the UK?
S53000162	Built-up Area	National Records of Scotland, National Records of Scotland web site (2022 Census Settlement boundaries)
S761654	Scottish Burgh/District (Burgh)
S761681	Scottish Burgh/District (DoC)
WEST DUNFERMLINE	Constituency (CCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)

NB: These are all the names of all the administrative units which we have associated with Dunfermline, and you must judge whether all or even any of them are variant names for the place. They may well include the names of other locations or areas:

For cities, the associated administrative units will usually include parishes, especially ecclesiastical parishes, one of whose names is the name of the city followed by a saint's dedication, with just the saint's name as another variant. Parish names will sometimes also include "places" within towns.
Districts usually contain more than one settlement, and some districts had their names changed to take the name of a completely different settlement. As we link each administrative unit to just one of our "places", usually the last place the unit was named after, in these cases the name for a completely different place will appear on this page.
Similarly, a unit may sometimes be named after a particular settlement it contains and sometimes to indicate its location within a higher level unit. This was very common among British parliamentary constituencies in rural areas, one name referring to their main town and another indicating that they were in, say, the southern part of the relevant county.

Every name listed here is linked to the particular historical source in which it appears, but we cannot claim that these are all the historical names of Dunfermline, or that our references are to the first usage of the names. Similarly, we have tried to ensure that names included here are not transcription errors by ourselves, but it is possible they are the result of errors made when the historical sources were printed, or the result of visiting authors or census officials mis-hearing local names.