Town, homestead. Written Bally, Balli, Balla, Bal — the same Irish word, baile, in the spellings English gave it.
Baile is the commonest word in the Irish landscape, some 6,400 townlands begin with it by Joyce's count, and it is younger than it looks. It first meant simply a place, then a homestead or townland, before it ever meant a town, and many Bally- names are relatively late. Bally followed by a surname (Ballymacarthy) is 'the homestead of that family'; Bally followed by a description is the place itself. It rarely means a town in the modern sense, and where a real town grew up on the spot the name simply came with it.
Source: P. W. Joyce, The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places (1869–1913) · Logainm ↗
Town, homestead: it is the Irish baile. Baile is the commonest word in the Irish landscape, some 6,400 townlands begin with it by Joyce's count, and it is younger than it looks. It first meant simply a place, then a homestead or townland, before it ever meant a town, and many Bally- names are relatively late.
baile. English spellings of the same word include Bally, Balli, Balla, Bal, because the names were written down by ear.
Ballymena (An Baile Meánach), Ballinamore (Béal an Átha Móir), Ballymahon (Baile Uí Mhatháin), Ballymote (Baile an Mhóta), Ballymoney (Baile Monaidh), Ballyclare (Bealach Cláir), Ballynahinch (Baile na hInse), Ballycastle (Baile an Chaistil) and more.