Early Celtic *kwenno-> British, Gaulish penno- > Old Welsh penn > Middle-Modern Welsh pen, Old Cornish pen > Cornish pedn, Middle-Modern Breton pen(n); Old Irishcenn > Irish, Gaelic ceann, Manx kione
‘No exact parallel’ in other Indo-European languages, see EGOW p129. For Continental examples, see ACPN pp97-8.
‘A head’: but in place-names it may be ‘top, summit’ or ‘end’, perhaps especially the higher end of a long hill or ridge, or the elevated end of a hill-spur, as if it were perceived as lion couchant . ‘Hill’is an inadequate, maybe misleading, interpretation: see Padel in CPNE pp177-8, and Gelling’s rejoinder in LPN pp210-13 (where she suggests ‘high, promontory-type ridge’). In
coastal names,‘headland’ is probably appropriate (LPN p210).
Could *kWenno- < *kWetno- be cognate to Greek petros (<*kWetros), Latin tri/quetrus and ON hvedr? < *kWet- "sharp, pointed, edge"
JS Lopes