The names of farms or small districts are often very interesting. A common termination in these is _-bister_, which represents the Norse _bolstadr_, a farmsteading, the first part of the name usually being derived from the name of the original owner, as in “Grimbister” and “Swanbister,” the farm of Grim and of Sweyn. The word is connected with _bol_, a dwelling, which still exists in our local dialect in the form “beul,” meaning a stall in a byre or stable. Two Norse words, _bu_ and _bær_, meaning a home or a household, give rise respectively to the common farm name Bu, and to several names ending in _-by_, as Houseby and Dounby. The termination _-ster_ or _-setter_, which is also very common, represents the Norse word _setr_; the name _saeter_ is still used in Norway for a summer pasture among the hills at some distance from the farm. Several of our farms bear the name of Seatter, and the number of compounds of this word is too large to need illustration. _Garth_, which meant an enclosure, is akin to the English words _yard_ and _garden_, and is found in numerous farm names, sometimes alone, but more frequently in compounds, where it appears as the termination _-ger_, the _g_ being sounded hard. Other names for enclosed land were _quoy_ (_kvi_) and _town_ (_tun_), and in almost every district we find farm names in which these words appear. The Norse _skali_, a hall, appears as _skaill_, either alone or as an element in compound names. There are other common terminations which might be mentioned, all of them significant and worthy of study, but these may suffice to illustrate how full of meaning and interest our common place-names really are. We have said that the Norse word for “island” now appears as the termination _-ay_ or _-a_. This termination, however, has in some cases a different origin, especially where the name does not refer to an island. Thus in the names Scapa and Hoxa the _-a_ is a contraction of _eith_, meaning an isthmus. Scapa was _Skalpeith_, the ship-isthmus, and Hoxa was _Haugseith_, the isthmus of the haug or howe. In the name of the island of Sanday, the termination means “island;” in the name Sanday applied to several places round Deer Sound, the reference is to the “Sand aith” or isthmus already mentioned. In names of places such as Birsay and Swannay, where a large burn is found, we may conclude that the _-ay_ represents the Norse _-a_, meaning a river, as the _o_ does in Thurso.