Vilamartín de Valdeorras

It is one of the hundreds of names Galicia inherits from the parcelling of Roman land: villa 'agrarian estate' plus its owner's name in the genitive. Here the owner was a Martinus, and the whole —⁠Villa Martini⁠— gave Vilamartín. The pattern recurs so often that it is sometimes confused with devotion to Saint Martin of Tours, widespread in the resettlement; but this town's mother parish is San Xurxo, Saint George, which tips the balance towards the landowner rather than the saint. The qualifier de Valdeorras was added to avoid confusion with the many other Vilamartín and Villamartín of the Peninsula, and in passing anchored it in the valley of the gigurri.