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Polkerris – what does the name of the village mean?

Early spellings were Polkerys (c1540), Polkerries (c1604) and Polkeries (1610), clearly a Cornish name, Pol meaning cove or haven.

At a recent talk a couple who had moved to Fowey from West Penwith told me how they named their house ‘beloved haven’ in Cornish. Morton Nance gives ‘kerys’ = ‘ker’ meaning dear, beloved, cherished (c.f. Welsh forename Cerys = love, loved one), so they named their house Polkerys.

Polkerris could, therefore, mean ‘beloved haven’ or perhaps more aptly ‘beloved cove’, an attractive and, it seems, plausible meaning. There’s broad agreement that Cornish ceased to be spoken east of a line from Tintagel to Fowey between 1300 and 1500 and by 1600 Cornish was only spoken west of St Austell Bay. The earliest record of Polkerris, as Polkerys, is the Great Map of the West of c1539/40 by which time Polkerris must have been of some significance and may have been established for some time. Was it for people in its earliest days a ‘beloved cove’?

Observations on this possible meaning would be welcome.

26 March 2019