[NB The brief explanation given below has been drafted on the assumption that the reader is already familiar with the basic building-blocks used in Celtic topographical place-names (Chapter 1 of the Home menu), with the structure of compound place-names (Chapter 2) and with the structure of Celtic river-names (Chapter 19)]
It would appear that no ancient source refers to this tribal name, though the Ravenna Cosmography does give a place-name Corielopocarium, the above tribal name simply being deduced from that form.
This tribal name appears quite clearly to be based on the topographical place-name Lobocarion, where initial L is just the hill-letter l used in the inversion-type manner and bocar is an old-style element meaning ‘high steep hill’. It is not entirely clear who, whether Celt or Roman, added the Corie element, but the place called Corielopocarium in Ravenna had presumably been the tribal centre of a group of people who used the hill-letter l. This l is apparently l2, as in Lucoganges (Coganges) at Chester-le-Street and Lincobigla (Lincovigla) at Lanchester. Corielopocarium appears to have been at South Shields and it is conceivable that the modern name The Lawe, applied to that part of the modern town where the Roman fort is located, is derived from the lob part of Lobocarion.
[This page was last modified on 24 March 2021]
