Morphology: tri+nant
Phonetic: tree-nant
The village developed around the Trenant Colliery (in operation from 1832 until it was abandoned in 1897). There was also a Tre-nant Hall and woods, the latter shown as Coed Tri-nant in 1886. The name appears to derive from the fact that there are three streams in the area, "tri" is Welsh for "three" and a stream or brook is a "nant". (See also Glan-y-nant for another use of "nant" in a place name).