Common Placename Prefixes and Suffixes:
(SG – Scots Gaelic; AS – Anglo-Saxon; ON – Old Norse; L – Latin)
aber– (Welsh) the mouth of a river of stream avon (Welsh, Cornish, SG) river (River Avon means River River)
bury, borough (AS) from ‘burh’, a Saxon fortified settlement
–by (ON) village
–caster, –chester, –cester (AS) Roman fortified site –don, –den, –dun (SG) fort or (AS) hill
–end (or –green) (modern) – hamlet or secondary settlement from a nearby village –field (AS) open land (rather than wooded) –ford (AS) river crossing –gate (ON) road –ham (AS) farm, homestead or settlement
–hampton ‘hamm’ is a water meadow, ‘tun’ is hamlet or village –hurst (AS) wooded hill
–ing (AS) people of [person/place]. Combined with ‘ham’ or ‘ton’: village of the people of – (for example, Birmingham, the place of Beorma’s people)
kyle (SG) from Caol, meaning narrows –llan, lan, lhan (Cornish and Welsh) – church, village with a church, parish –ly, –ley, –leigh (AS) a grassy clearing or field –pen (Cornish and Welsh) headland or hill ster (ON) farm strath (SG) wide valley
thorpe (ON), indicating a secondary settlement or hamlet, dependent on a larger place nearby
thwaite (ON) clearing ton (AS) homestead or estate wald, weald, wold (AS) forested land
wick (ON) bay (on a coastline) or (L) place or settlement or (AS) relating to salt production
–worth, –worthy (AS) an enclosure, or fenced place
PLACENAMES
A name can give useful information about a place’s history, purpose and position in the landscape. Be wary – the modern name may be very different to an earlier incarnation, and there may be multiple potential interpretations.
Placenames involving personal names may indicate founders, important residents, or patrons. They can give clues about the age of a settlement and its status. Gardenstown in Aberdeenshire and Bettyhill in Sutherland were new towns created for tenants evicted during the Highland Clearances in the 18th and 19th centuries. Gardenstown was the destination of tenants of Alexander Garden; Bettyhill took destitute Highlanders cleared from Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland’s estates. Wallingford in Oxfordshire relates to the Anglo-Saxon for the ford owned, or used, by the man Wealh and his people. Bognor Regis, in Sussex was just ‘Bognor’ for a long time – meaning the lady Bucge’s shore (or landing place). In the 1790s Sir Richard Hotham attempted to change its name into Hothamton, without success. The town only became Bognor Regis when King George V was sent to recuperate there after
an operation in 1929, and was asked to grant the suffix in recognition that it was now ‘of the King’. Apparently he retorted ‘Bugger Bognor!’ but it got its regal upgrade nonetheless.
Topographical placenames can help you spot man-made changes to the geography of a site, or features inhabitants considered important. Whittlesey, in the now-drained Cambridgeshire fens, means Witil’s (or Witta’s) island. Nearby Whittlesey Mere, now dry, used to be a vast shallow lake, covering up to 3,000 acres (1,200ha) of land. Rhuddlan, in Denbighshire, North Wales (pronounced ‘Rith-lan’) means ‘red bank’, referring to the colour of the soil. Torpenhow in Cumbria is a tautological placename, meaning ‘Top of the Hill Hill’, where pen and how both mean hill. Bredon Hill in Worcestershire is the same (Bree Hill Hill).
Directional names can suggest how the site or village fits with other sites that were contemporary, and may indicate that they were linked in trade or territorially. Northwich, Nantwich and Middlewich are towns with a history of salt production in Cheshire. ‘Wich’ or ‘wych’ indicates salt production. Northwich is north, Middlewich is the middle and Nantwich
is furthest south. (‘Nant’ either relates to the Welsh word for stream, or a derivation of a pre-Roman sacred site.) ‘Sutton’ means South; ‘Norton’, ‘Weston’ and ‘Aston’ mean North, West and East respectively.
Environmental names can also give clues to the origins, trade and products of a place. Woolwich, in south-east London, is an Anglo-Saxon name for ‘place where they trade wool’. Wooler in Northumberland, however, has nothing to do with sheep – instead the name may mean ‘wella’ (a well or spring) and ‘ofer’ (a ridge or hill). The other possibility is that it derives from ‘wulfa’, a personal name, which also means ‘wolf’. Grassholm, an island off the south-west coast of Wales, means ‘grassy island’ in Old Norse – it indicates that Norsemen travelled these waters, that the habitat on the island was a feature worthy of remark, and that this island was perhaps grassier than its neighbours. Market Drayton in Shropshire derives its modern name from the market granted by charter in 1245 (which is still thriving). Rather confusingly, however, until at least the 1860s it was simply known as ‘Drayton’ or ‘Drayton in Hales’, despite the importance of its market.
Listed Heritage Magazine July/August 2021
27
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