The name Cornwall derives from the combination of two separate terms from different languages. The Corn- part comes from the hypothesised original tribal name of the Celtic-speaking people who had lived here since the Iron Age, the Cornovii. The second element -wall derives from the Old English w(e)alh, meaning a “foreigner” or “Welshman”. The name first appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 891 as On Corn walum. In the Domesday Book it was referred to as Cornualia and in c. 1198 as Cornwal.
A latinisation of the name as Cornubia first appears in a mid-9th-century deed purporting to be a copy of one dating from c. 705. Another variation, with Wales reinterpreted as Gallia, thus:Cornugallia, is first attested in 1086. Finally, the Cornish language form of the name, Kernow, which first appears around 1400, derives directly from the original Cornowii which is postulated from a single mention in the Ravenna Cosmography of around 700 (but based on earlier sources) of Purocoronavis. This is considered to be a corruption of Durocornovium, ‘a fort or walled settlement of the Cornovii’. Its location is unidentified, but Tintagel or Carn Brea have been suggested.
In pre-Roman times, Cornwall was part of the kingdom of Dumnonia, and was later known to the Anglo-Saxons as “West Wales”, to distinguish it from “North Wales”.
Cornwall is one of only a few places in Britain – London, Edinburgh, and Dover being other examples – to have a corresponding name in the French language: Cornouailles