The name of the town in Occitan is Caudiers de Fenolledès (historical form), de Fenolhedés (normalized form) or de Fenolhet (by similarity with other nearby communes).[1]
The name first appears in 1011 as Caldarios. It is then written as Cauders in the 14th century, and then Caudies from the 15th to the 17th centuries, and then as Caudiers or Caudiès in modern Occitan.[1]
In French, the official name is Caudiès in 1790, when the village becomes a commune, even though the names of Caudiès-de-Fenouillèdes or Caudiès-de-Saint-Paul were already in use.[2]Caudiès-de-Saint-Paul is used until the end of the 19th century,[3] but the town officially changes its name on 31 January 1898 to Caudiès-de-Fenouillèdes, still in use nowadays.[2]
The name comes from the Latin caldarius, meaning cauldron, as can be seen on the local coat of arms, and may refer to nearby pit caves around the river Boulzane.[1]
↑ 1,01,11,2Lluís Basseda, Toponymie historique de Catalunya Nord, t. 1, Prades, Revista Terra Nostra, 1990, 796 p.
↑ 2,02,1Jean-Pierre Pélissier, Paroisses et communes de France : dictionnaire d'histoire administrative et démographique, vol. 66 : Pyrénées-Orientales, Paris, CNRS, 1986
