Llan...The Where

       It was most likely that during the first two centuries after the Roman Empire collapse, the monastic movement came to life for my Celtic ancestors.  The gradual development of distinctive languages for each major Celtic group was also just beginning and, the Welsh language first showed itself in early written form around the middle of the sixth century. (see post of 29 October) Now when the written word "Llan" came to be, it must have occurred about this time, since the clan leaders certainly wanted their name to be associated and remembered to future generations down the family tree. The church and its enclosure, that was sponsored by the patriarch, got their name attached to this place. Llanedwen was the place name supported and founded by Edwen. Llangernwy was the place that patriarch Gernwy gave the church its beginning. Just how many and where all these enclosures were located are shown in the following map. It shows the present 13 counties of Wales and the number of place names for Llan. The total number for Llan is n=529. The range is 5-69 and the average (mean) is 41.

      Using my long, lost statistical skills, the 95th percentile is 27-55. Looking above, three counties colored orange, have numbers greater than 55 and, two have numbers less than 27 which are colored green.  To me this would indicate the southern counties would have a set of reasons for this higher number of Llan place names.  Likewise, the northern counties would have their own reasons for the numbers falling less than 3 standard deviations from the average of 41. My Celtic ancestors (Deceangl)  shown the least numbers of Llan place names of all 13 counties. What is up with this? Where are all the enclosed church places?