Perth, Perthshire : Place names

Names from historical writing:

The following appear as names for Perth. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name	Author	Source
BAR TATHA	F.H. Groome	Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
PERTH	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
PERTH	F.H. Groome	Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
PERTH DISTRICT OF	F.H. Groome	Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
SAINT JOHNS TOWNE	William Camden	Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
ST JOHNSTON	Daniel Defoe	A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
ST JOHNSTONS	Daniel Defoe	A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
ST JOHNS TOWN	Daniel Defoe	A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.

Names for administrative units:

These names were used for units associated with Perth. Click on the links for details of the units and their names:

Name	Unit Type	Source
00RB	District/Unitary Authority	Census of Population (2001 Key Statistics)
EAST PERTHSHIRE	Constituency (CCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
PERTH	1841 Occupation reporting area	1841 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Occupation Abstract'.
	Built-up Area	National Records of Scotland, National Records of Scotland web site (2022 Census Settlement boundaries)
	Constituency (CCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	Constituency (DistBCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	Constituency (PBCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	Scottish Burgh/District (DoC)	1971 Census of Scotland, Table 25, 'Enumerated households by tenure and household amenities', for 'County, local authority areas'.
	Scottish Burgh/District (Burgh)	1951 Census of Scotland, Table 1, 'Comparison of population, density per 100 acres, and houses with 1931', for 'Burghs, Districts of Counties and CPs'.
	Scottish Parish	1951 Census of Scotland, Table 1, 'Comparison of population, density per 100 acres, and houses with 1931', for 'Burghs, Districts of Counties and CPs'.
	Urban Labour Market	Great Britain Historical GIS Project
PERTH AND EAST PERTHSHIRE	Constituency (CCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
PERTH AND KINROSS	District/Unitary Authority	Census of Population (2001 Key Statistics)
PERTH AND KINROSS AND STIRLING	Nuts Unit Level 3	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (NUTS, level 3 (January 2018) Boundaries UK)
PERTH AND KINROSS SHIRE	Constituency (CCon)	House of Commons Library, Boundary review 2023: Which seats will change in the UK?
PERTH AND NORTH PERTHSHIRE	Constituency (CCon)	Boundary Commission for Scotland Information Paper. Westminster Parliament constituencies 2005 onwards
PERTH CITY CENTRE	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
PERTH CITY NORTH	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
PERTH CITY SOUTH	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
PERTHSHIRE AND KINROSS	District/Unitary Authority	Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland (Information Paper: Local government area boundaries in Scotland: 1995 onwards)
PERTHSHIRE AND KINROSS SHIRE PERTH	Constituency (PDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
PERTHSHIRE AND KINROSS SHIRE PERTH AND EAST PERTHSHIRE	Constituency (CCon)	F.W.S. Craig (ed.), British Parliamentary Election Results 1950-1970 (Chichester: Political Reference Publications, 1971)
S13003072	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
S13003073	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
S13003074	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
S14000054	Constituency (CCon)	House of Commons Library, Boundary review 2023: Which seats will change in the UK?
S14000103	Constituency (CCon)	House of Commons Library, Boundary review 2023: Which seats will change in the UK?
S53000395	Built-up Area	National Records of Scotland, National Records of Scotland web site (2022 Census Settlement boundaries)
S871804	Scottish Burgh/District (Burgh)
S871820	Scottish Burgh/District (DoC)
ST JOHNSTOUN	Scottish Burgh/District (Burgh)	The Scottish Archive Network, Scottish Archives Network Gazetteer
UKM77	Nuts Unit Level 3	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (NUTS, level 3 (January 2018) Boundaries UK)

NB: These are all the names of all the administrative units which we have associated with Perth, and you must judge whether all or even any of them are variant names for the place. They may well include the names of other locations or areas:

For cities, the associated administrative units will usually include parishes, especially ecclesiastical parishes, one of whose names is the name of the city followed by a saint's dedication, with just the saint's name as another variant. Parish names will sometimes also include "places" within towns.
Districts usually contain more than one settlement, and some districts had their names changed to take the name of a completely different settlement. As we link each administrative unit to just one of our "places", usually the last place the unit was named after, in these cases the name for a completely different place will appear on this page.
Similarly, a unit may sometimes be named after a particular settlement it contains and sometimes to indicate its location within a higher level unit. This was very common among British parliamentary constituencies in rural areas, one name referring to their main town and another indicating that they were in, say, the southern part of the relevant county.

Every name listed here is linked to the particular historical source in which it appears, but we cannot claim that these are all the historical names of Perth, or that our references are to the first usage of the names. Similarly, we have tried to ensure that names included here are not transcription errors by ourselves, but it is possible they are the result of errors made when the historical sources were printed, or the result of visiting authors or census officials mis-hearing local names.