Dumfries (GB)
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Dumfries ; Scots: Dumfries; from Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Phris: is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about 25 miles by road from the Anglo-Scottish border and just 15 miles away from Cumbria by air. Dumfries is the county town of the historic county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South. This is also the name of the town's professional football club. People from Dumfries are known colloquially in Scots language as Doonhamers.
There are a number of theories on the etymology of the name, with an ultimately Celtic derivation (either from Brythonic, Gaelic or a mixture of both) considered the most likely.
The first element is derived either from the elements drum or dronn-, (meaning "ridge" or "hump", also in Gaelic as druim), or from Dùn meaning fort. One of the more commonly given etymologies is that the name Dumfries originates from the Scottish Gaelic name Dùn Phris, meaning "Fort of the Thicket".
The second element is less obvious, but may be cognate with the Cumbric prēs, an element common in the Brythonic areas south of the River Forth. As such, Dumfries has been suggested as a possible location of Penprys, the mysterious capital of a land in Medieval Welsh literature, most notably mentioned in the awdl, "Elegy for Gwallawg" by Taliesin.
According to a third theory, the name is a corruption of two Old English or Old Norse words which mean "the Friars' Hill"; those who favour this idea allege the formation of a religious house near the head of what is now the Friars' Vennel. If the name were English or Norse, however, the expected form would have the elements in reversed orientation (compare Clarendon). A Celtic derivation is therefore preferred.
Dumfries was issued with the Scottish 108 numeral by the Post Office in 1844.
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