SOMERVILLE

The village near a marsh or lake; So mer, a marshy soil, near water or the sea. So, for swl, sal, the earth, soil, land. Samhradh, Gaelic, summer, from Samh, the sun. Somerset may have been so called because the primitive inhabitants had an altar to the sun, samh, or because the country lay to the south.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.