England Place Name Origins - International Institute

They Were Born Where?
The following places exist in the UK and will appear on someone’s census return as a ‘place of birth’, to readily confuse or amuse the family historian (Maryon):

Alexandria, Boston, Botany Bay, California, Canada, Charleston, Chimney, Christmas Common, Cupid’s Green, Egypt, Gibraltar, Ham (there’s one near Sandwich, Kent!), Hollywood, Jericho, Land of Nod, Mesopotamia, New York, Quebec, Rosebush, Shop, Moscow, Mumps, Pity Me, and Washington.

Etymology of Place Names
Few subjects contain so many pitfalls as the study of place names (Hoskins). To the novice the meaning of a place name may look obvious, but such guesses are likely to be wrong because we are looking at the modern spelling of the word. What is needed is a careful assessment of the development of the name from its earliest forms both written and, especially in peoples of mainly spoken tradition such as the Gaels, of oral sources. This is the province of toponymists and philologists and their expert guidance can be found in such volumes as Ekwall, Cameron and the relevant county volume published by the English Place Name Society now headquartered at the University of Nottingham (see Mawer and Stenton).

These are not infallible however, but can generally be relied on more than many other pre-1976 publications. Hey has produced a highly recommended, detailed critique of the work of the English Place Name Society and the current state of the discipline. The best modern work on the subject is Gelling’s Signposts to the Past (1988) which should be consulted in the first instance by anyone interested in this subject. Amongst the post-1976 works are Addison (Understanding English Place-Names, 1978), Field (The Place-Names of Great Britain and Ireland, 1990), Gelling (Place-Names in the Landscape, 1984), Harrington (The Meaning of English Place-Names, 1986), Mills (A Dictionary of English Place-Names, 1991), the mammoth 1990 bibliography by Spittal and Field (A Reader’s Guide to the Place-Names of the United Kingdom: A Bibliography of Publications (1920-1989)on the Place-Names of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, The Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands) , and Dorward (Scotland’s Place-names ,1998) for Scotland. Earlier ones include those by Stokes (English Place-Names , 1948), Reaney (The Origin of English Place-Names, 1960), Copley (English Place Names and Their Origins , 1971). Many counties also have a popular dictionary-type volume such as those by Judith Glover on Kent and Sussex, David Mills on Lancashire, and Stephen Robinson on Somerset. There are many more erudite discourses on place names of much smaller areas such as towns and valleys.

Landmarks
The sheer volume of Old English names introduced as the Anglo-Saxons arrived in the 5th century in the east and finally penetrated the south west by the 9th century enables us to envision the countryside of that time.

Prehistoric Features
Anglo-Saxons referred to prehistoric remains as relics of other cultures with generalized vocabulary referring to an assumed function of either burial or defence. The Celts of Cornwall, Wales and Ireland were more specific in their naming as the linguistic tradition was continuous and showed an understanding of the type of site, with several specific words for different types of fort, for example. Common words originating with the Anglo-Saxons to describe places include:


 * Beorg now barrow, and hläw now low, both referring to a tumulus (burial place). They were often chosen as meeting places for the ancient administrative units called hundreds, which in turn were often named after these meeting places.


 * Draca meaning dragon, is now Drake or Drag and referred to the Anglo-Saxon belief that tumuli contained treasure guarded by dragons.


 * Hord occurring in place names refers to a find of a hoard of coins or other metal objects in post-Roman Britain.


 *  Prehistoric fortifications were recognized by the Anglo-Saxons as burh or byrig, the modern borough and -bury, although in the north the term burh may also refer to a Roman fort.


 * Töt-ærn refers to a hill-fort, and is a combination of töt meaning look-out place and ærn, a house.


 * Two words meaning pagan shrine, hearg (as in Harrow) and wëoh or wïh (as in Weedon or Wye).


 *  Names of heathen gods like Wöden, Thunor andTïw as in Wednesbury and Thunderfield.

Boundaries and Meeting Places
The Anglo-Saxon charters delineate the boundaries of estates and many place names are derived from terms used in those charters, such as:


 * trëow (‘tree’) as in Coventry and Elstree
 * dïc (‘ditch’) as in Soers Ditch, now Shoreditch
 * stan (‘stone’) as in Bishopstone

Meeting places for the administration of the old hundreds and other purposes were often conveniently situated on charter boundaries, and settlements developed at some of these sites. The high survival rate of names given to features recognized as boundary marks is evident in both written and oral tradition, with a name used in an Anglo-Saxon charter sometimes being still used orally although there is no subsequent written evidence for it. Note that it is imperative to study the sequence of early spellings and not jump to conclusions. For example, Brixton is derived from Brihtsige’s stone not from a -tün suffix.

Watery Places
The Celtic language survives best in the names of rivers and many have been passed on as a part of the name of a habitation. The Celtic word for river was avon, a name in current use for several rivers and a new county; that for water was iscä from which Axe, Exe, and Esk derive and form the roots of Axminster, Exeter and Eskdale respectively. A number of rivers have names deriving from the same Celtic root as the Welsh taff—the Thames, Thame, Tame, Team, Teme, Tavy and Tamar.

The Old English (Anglo-Saxon)burna (‘stream’) is found in Bourne and Burnham, but compound words ending in -bourne may be from the Old Norse brunnr (‘well, spring’) in the Danelaw. Another Old English word bröc (‘brook, stream’) is also common giving us Brooke and Brockton. Some names for streams in Old English were onomatopoeic in that they imitated the sound of the water, thus the River Lud was ‘the loud one’ (hlÿde) and this name gave rise to the town name Louth.

There are many other examples in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse quoted by Copley (English Place Names and Their Origins). Confluence of two rivers can be seen in the names having the component twisla (‘confluence’) as in Twisleton and Haltwhistle; and a waterfall, which in Old Norse was fors became part of Fossdale and High Force. Other words for waters are combined with adjectives to describe white/chalky (Wendover), clear (Sherborne), holy (Wenlock), dirty (Smite), fresh (Friskney) or salty (Saltburn) rivers.

Colburn was a cool stream whilst Chadwell denoted a cold well. Bends in rivers are remembered in Croome and Cromwell, as well as Hooke and Horley, and one can readily see how these names ‘migrated’ to town names and thence to surnames. Habitations tended to grow around river crossings with resultant names like Bedford and Stafford (Old English ford), Redmain and Penrith (Celtic rhyd), and Wadebridge (Latin vadum).

Islands, whether in rivers or as drier spots in more marshy ground, gave their names to many places from the Old English ëy and Old Norse öy  at Eyam, Sandy or Whitney and the Celtic inis at Ince and Inskip; but far more common is the Old Norse holmr found in Holme and its many compounds, as well as Oldham. Springs were of obvious importance and the Celtic word funtön gradually became a part of town names like Bedfont and Chalfont, while the Old Englishwella is in evidence at not only Wells but also innumerable compounds such as Bradwell and Stanwell.

Sheets of water were called mere and freshwater ones featured prominently at Mere, Grasmere, Martin and Merton; but the word was also used to mean ‘the sea’ as at Margate and Mersea. There was another word sæ which also meant both ‘lake’ and ‘sea’ and we find this in Seathwaite (‘clearing beside a pool’) and Seaton (‘farm by the sea’). The word pool comes from pöl or pull and there are plenty of examples—Poole, Poulton, Liverpool etc., the Celtic word was lindo which can be found at Lincoln and Lindsey.

An artificial drainage channel was usually called a dïc (‘ditch’) as we see at Ditton and Diss, but in the Danelaw it is Dyke after the Old Norse dík, and many had a defensive nature as in Wansdyke and Devil’s Dyke. Other such channels could be gota found at Goit Lane, and the Old French goule (‘throat’ extended to mean ‘ditch’) is found at Goole. Landing places would become settlements and were commonly hÿð in Old English which became elements of the names Stepney (Stybba’s hÿð) and ''Putney (Putta’s hÿð). Kay, an Old French word meaning ‘quay’ was adopted as Middle English key, leaving us such places as Key Street, Kew and Torquay''.

The Old English word for ‘wharf’, hwearf, gave us Wherstead and Wharton (Westmorland), but other sources for similar modern place names were wæfre (‘swaying’) as at Wharton (Herefordshire and Lancashire) and Warton, and weard (‘watch’) as at Warden and Wardle. Numerous places named Marsh, Marston and Merston are situated in formerly marshy places and derive from the Old English term for this, mersc. Fenn in Fenton and Fenwick, and the Celtic cors in Corsley and Cosford refer to similar boggy areas.

Animals in Place Names
The Anglo-Saxon words for animals such as beofor (‘beaver’) and wulf  (‘wolf’) and many others were used as personal names too, thus it is often difficult when they occur in a place name to know whether they refer to a person or an animal. There are records of people named Putta (‘kite’), Wigga (‘beetle’) and also plants such as Bola (‘tree trunk’) so other clues have to be used by the etymologist.

Farm animals typically gave rise to place names such as Bulmer (‘bulls’ lake’), Calton (‘calf’s place’), Cowley (‘clearing for cows’) and Henstridge (‘stallion’s ridge’). Sheep are found in the many names beginning with Shep-, Sheep-, Shap-, Shop-, Ship-, Skip- and Lamb-. Wild animals also occur in place names like Deerhurst, Buckfast, Hartford, Hindhead, Frogmore and Haredene, whilst less common words occur in Brockhurst (badger) and Martley (martin).

Birds can be found in Finchale (finch), Gawthorpe (cuckoo), Larkhill, Swallowcliffe, Rookwith, Crowhurst, Arncliffe (eagle), Hawksworth and so forth. There are fishing places called Fishlake and Fishbourne, as well as plenty describing eels, such as Ely and Alford. Insects are represented in Bewick and Beckett (‘bee home or cottage’) and Honiton (‘honey farm’). Wigley is from the Old English word wigga for beetle, which we retain in ‘earwig,’ whilst Gnatham tells us that it is the ‘water meadow of the gnats.’ Latchmere commemorates the fact that it was a source of leeches for medicine.

Apart from the eagle, whose name survives in many counties’ place names where the bird does not, there are other reminiscences of animals now extinct in Britain. Beavers are no longer found in England but their former presence can be noted at Beverley and Beversbrook. Wolves were found at Wolford and Wooley, wild boars at Barlow and Barsham, and wild cats at Catley.

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Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online course English - Understanding Names in Genealogy offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. To learn more about this course or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at [mailto:wiki@genealogicalstudies.com wiki@genealogicalstudies.com]

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