The name Glenridding Dodd is recorded from 1823 onwards. Glenridding is probably 'the valley full of bracken', from Cumbric glinn (or possibly Irish Gaelic gleann), 'glen, valley' and the Cumbric equivalent of the Welsh rhedyn, 'fern, bracken.' Dod or dodd is a dialect word of unknown origin, but common in hill names in the Lake District and the Scottish Borders for bare rounded summits, either free standing or subsidiary shoulders to higher neighbours.: