The etymology of the Espalion's name gave rise to many hypothesis included in a little humoristic book of Joseph Vaylet entitled: " Espalion: 30 onomastic hypothesis". This book includes the most credible as well as the crankiest explanations. In a very old tradition, Charlemagne called the town: " Hyspalis", the Seville's ancient name, because of the similarity he saw between the two towns. Apart from the stupidity of this idea, not only Charlemagne had never seen Seville but also Espalion didn't exist in this age. We can suppose the tradition tries by this device to tell us the date of building of the Calmont's castle and the bridge.

The distinguished toponymist Albert Dauzat had tried to explain this name. But the word: " Spalia " used by him in the meaning of " cliff " raises 2 problems. First, this word doesn't exist: Dauzat had created it for his explanation from the word " Pal " (from Latin " palus": post), next, there is no cliff to justify his hypothesis.

The various texts from charters collection of several abbeys give Espalion's ancient names: " Speleuvo (997-1031), Espeleu (1162-1178), Spelieu (1260), Spaleum (1316), Espelonum (1336) or Speleo (1349) ". Dauzat was right for a point: the name comes from a Latin word which begins with an " S" which is in all ancient names. In the first charter, the name refers a meadow without mention a bridge, which allows deducting the bridge was built on a Lot's bend which bore that name before.

return