In the Cumbric language, exactly as in today's Welsh, pen meant 'top' or 'head', and y is most likely the definite article (the), exactly as in Modern Welsh y (compare Pen-y-berth 'end of the hedge/copse', or Pen-y-ffordd 'head of the road/way', etc.). The element ghent is more obscure, it could be taken to be 'edge' or 'border'. The name Pen-y-ghent could therefore mean 'Hill on the border' (compare Kent). Or else, the final element may be gïnt, meaning a heathen, a gentile (< Latin gentis; c.f. Welsh gynt), presumably in reference to Scandinavian pagans.