Gateshead

Meaning

Proper Noun

• town Tyne and Wear (county) in north-east England (constituent country). Found upon the southern bank of the Tyne.
• metropolitan borough Tyne and Wear (county) formed in 1974, with its headquarters in the town.

Origin

• From Middle English Gatesheved (c. 1190), from Old English *Gāteshēafod, first mentioned by Bede in Latin in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People as ad caput caprae (at the goat's head), meaning a [[headland or hill frequented by (wild) goats. Both Latin and English names may be calques of a Brythonic predecessor formed from Proto-Brythonic *gaβr, from Proto-Celtic *gabros, and might have been the Romano-British fort of Gabrosentum.