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Extrait de la carte Ordnance Survey : Map of Roman Britain

* Rivet & Smith, Place-Names of Roman Britain, p 330 : 

SOURCES.

- Ptolemy II,3,8 : Dekantai (Müller's restoration); MSS have Lekantai ( = LECANTAE), de kanteai ( = De Cantae); Kantai ( = Cantae)

- Ravenna 108₈ : DECHA.

Müller's restoration seems a natural one. Ravenna's name has not previously been placed in relation with it, and there can be no certainty that this is right; but Decha is meaningless and is impossible as a British form, and as we know, a number of North British ethnic names are concealed in the Cosmography as place-names. Decha could readily have arisen from *Decante via an abbreviation Decate which was not understood.

DERIVATION. Watson CPNS 18-19 (following Stokes and Holder) finds a base in a root *dec- 'good, noble', as in Old Irish dech 'best, noblest' (cf. Latin decor, etc.), with a suffix *-ant- of participial form as in other ethnic names such as Novantae, Trinovantes, Setantii. He compares Gaulish Decetia (Decize, Nièvre), and Goidelic inscriptions of Devon and Anglesey which mention Decheti, Decceti, Deceti (-t- in Goidelic representing -nt- in equivalent names). See also the Note below.

IDENTIFICATION. A people of Scotland placed by Ptolemy 'east' (that is, north) of the Caledonii and so apparently inhabiting Easter Ross.

Note. There were other Decantae or Decanti (for such a variation in declension, cf. Atrebates) in N. Wales. They are not recorded in ancient sources, but Degannwy near Llandudno is < *Decantouion - with suffix as in Canovium, etc. - and this place was Arx Decantorum in the Annales Cambriae (812; see LHEB 39) and was Dygant in Middle Welsh. Rhys (1904) 295 suggested that Tacitus's Annals XII, 32, should be emended in * Decantos, supposing *Decanti, which is by no means impossible even though none of theMS variants suggests this. See our entry for Deceangli. 

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Observation JCE :  Pour ma part (JCE), j'ai proposé *Dè-Cant- = Dieu lumineux, compte tenu de leur proximité avec les Lugi et les Smertae, qui sont soit, pour le premier une reprise du nom de Lug, pour le second une épithète de Lug, désignant ainsi le dieu de la Lumière, autrement dit Dieu lumineux, brillant.

Histoire : 

Compte tenu de la position observée de ce peuple à l'extrémité nord-est de l'Ile de Bretagne, on peut affirmer que s'il ne s'agit pas d'un peuple pré-celtique, ceux-ci ont fait partie de l'une des premières vagues indo-européennes, qualifiables de 'celtiques', en Île de Bretagne. On peut donc envisager qu'ils seraient apparus dans l'Île entre -1000 et -750, soumettant ou absorbant des peuples indigènes pour nous inconnus.

Ils ont été eux-mêmes repoussés par la vague suivante, le groupe des Dumnonii (groupe 2). 

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Sources. Bibliographie : 

- Ordnance Survey : Map of Roman Britain. 

- A.L.F RIVET & Colin SMITH : The Place-names of Roman Britain. B.T Batsford Ltd. London. 1979-1982.

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