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Bod yn golygu ‘cartref, trigfan, annedd’ yw ail elfen yr enw Meifod, a digwydd yn gyffredin mewn enwau lleoedd. Yn draddodiadol, câi’r elfen gyntaf ei dehongli fel Mai, enw’r mis, gan arwain at esbonio’r enw fel ‘trigfan mis Mai’ (mewn cyferbyniad â hafod ‘trigfan yr haf’).
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The second element of the name Meifod is bod meaning ‘home, dwelling, residence’, which occurs in many place-names. Traditionally, the first element has been explained as Mai ‘the month of May’, leading to the interpretation of the name as ‘May dwelling’, in comparison to hafod (haf + bod) ‘summer dwelling’. But in fact, what we have here is the element mei- ‘half, middle’. The name Meifod therefore denotes a ‘middle dwelling’, and refers (as stated in Owen & Morgan: Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales, p. 315) to its position half way between Llansanffraid-ym-Mechain and Mathrafal. The same mei- element is present in Mehefin ‘June, i.e. the middle of summer’ and dimai ‘halfpenny’. It is also occurs in the place-names Meidrum (mei- + trum ‘ridge’) and Meiros (mei- + rhos ‘moor, heath’) in Carmarthenshire.
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