The Greek geographer and astronomer Claudius Ptolemy (died c170 AD) referred in his writings to "Morikambe eischusis" as a location on Britain's west coast, lying between the Ribble and the Solway. The sixteenth-century scholar William Camden identified the locality as being near Silloth, hence the similar name of that bay but the eighteenth century antiquarian John Horsley who translated Ptolemy into English in 1732 favoured it being the bay on the then Lancashire/Cumberland border. In 1771 historian John Whitaker took up this latter suggestion and the name appeared on maps subsequently. The first recorded to do so being one associated with Father Thomas West's "Antiquities of Furness" of 1774. Camden believed the name originated with two words meaning "crooked sea" whilst West offered up "white/beautiful haven" though current thought is that it refers to a "curve of the sea".