This Elvish name comes from athrad ('ford' or 'crossing') and Angren (literally 'iron', the name of the river crossed by the ford). This was actually not a single crossing but a pair of fords, separated by an island in the middle of the river, and for this reason the crossing's English name is usually given in the plural as 'Fords of Isen'. There was also a pluralised form of the name in Elvish, and in Sindarin plurals were formed by modifying the vowel sounds within a name, so the singular Athrad Angren 'ford of Isen' was also seen as the plural Ethraid Engrin, 'Fords of Isen'.
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