Devon Terrace

The county name is recorded three times in different ways around the city; we have Devonport, the title assumed by Plymouth Dock when it was granted its independence from Plymouth, Devonshire Street, a little to the north of Regent Street, and Devon Terrace, running around the playing fields of Plymouth College.

All three names are nineteenth-century while the county name itself was first recorded, as Defnum, 1100 years ago in 894AD. Said by one authority to be identical with the tribal name Defnas "men of Devon" it is in turn thought to have evolved from "Dumnonii", the name of the Celtic natives here. Dumnonii has been ascribed at least two meanings by etymologists, one is the "deep ones" - deriving from that of their god Dumnonos, the other is "deep valleys" - a name not unsuited to the topography of the county with its ancient rocks and tors which were later to give rise to the term Devonian as being typical of the fourth period of the Palaeozoic Era 410-350 millions years ago.