The name of the town probably derives from the Cornish "Bod-meneghy", meaning "dwelling of or by the sanctuary of monks". Variant spellings recorded include "Botmenei" in 1100, "Bodmen" in 1253, "Bodman" in 1377 and "Bodmyn" in 1522. The "Bodman" spelling also appears in sources and maps from the 16th and 17th centuries, most notably in the celebrated map of Cornwall produced by John Speed but actually engraved by the Dutch cartographer Jodocus Hondius the Elder (1563–1612) in Amsterdam in 1610 (published in London by Sudbury and Humble in 1626).