 The earliest documented references to the name "Port Madoc" are from the 1830s, coinciding with the opening of the Ffestiniog Railway and the subsequent growth of the town.The first Ordnance Survey map to use the name was published in 1838.Its derives from the town's founder William Madocks, despite a belief that it is named after the folklore character Madog ab Owain Gwynedd, who also gives his name to "Ynys Fadog" (English