The place we now call England is steeped in millennia of histories and peoples and tongues, all of which have, in some way, left their mark. An often-overlooked legacy of our ancestors is the names they gave to geographical areas – most of which are still in use today. Drawing on etymological roots from Old Norse, Old English (sometimes called Anglo-Saxon), Middle English, Insular (Anglo-Saxon) Latin, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Irish (Irish Gaelic), Cornish, Cumbric, and doubtless many more insular and Northern European languages; the rich linguistic tapestry of this land is carried through the ages in our modern names for the places they dwelt. Below is a list of common parts of English place names, with their accompanying root languages and meanings. Hopefully, next time you’re scanning across a map, list of train stations, or perhaps a motorway exit sign, see if you can recognise any part of a town name and, with it, part of the history of this land.
- -avon (Glenavon, Stratford-upon-Avon) means ‘river’ in Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Irish and Cornish
- -b(o)rough/-bury (Canterbury, Loughborough) can mean a ‘fortified enclosure’ in Old English
- -bridge (Cambridge, Banbridge) is pretty self-explanatory, but it usually refers to a specific bridge in the area
- -by (Derby, Grimsby) can mean ‘settlement’ or ‘village’ in Old Norse
- -chester/caster (Manchester, Lancaster) means ‘camp’ or ‘fortification’ in Insular (Anglo-Saxon) Latin
- -dale (Borrowdale, Arundel) means ‘valley’ in Old Norse
- -ford (Oxford, Bedford) can mean ‘ford’, ‘crossing’ or ‘road’ in Old English
- -fields (Southfields, Sheffield) is also self-explanatory, usually denoting farmland
- Ham-/-ham (Dagenham, Hampshire) means ‘farm’ or ‘homestead’ in Old English
- -ing- (Dorking, Birmingham, Kensington) comes from ‘ingas’, meaning ‘the people of’ in Old English
- -ley/leigh (Burnley, Cranleigh) comes from ‘leah’, meaning a ‘woodland clearing’ in Old English
- -mere (Buttermere, Kingsmere) can mean ‘lake’ or ‘pool’ in Old English
- -minster (Westminster, Upminster) likely refers to a ‘large church’ or ‘monastery’ in Old English, though ‘ster’ can mean ‘farm’
- -mouth (Cockermouth, Falmouth) refers to the ‘mouth of a river’ or a ‘bay’, from Middle English
- Pen- (Penzance, Penryn) can mean ‘headland’, ‘hill’, ‘top’ or ‘end of’ in Welsh, Cornish and Cumbric
- -shire (Oxfordshire, Lancashire) comes from Old English and was the traditional term used for a division of land or district
- -sted/stead (Hampstead, Banstead) means ‘place’ or ‘enclosed pasture’ in Old English
- -stow/stol (Walthamstow, Bristol) probably refers to ‘a holy place of assembly’ in Old English
- Swin-/-swin (Swindon, Boswin) can mean ‘pigs/swine’ in Old English
- -ton (Brighton, Preston) comes from the Old English ‘tun’, meaning a ‘homestead’ or ‘estate’
- -wich/wick (Norwich, Chiswick) comes from the Old Norse word for a ‘bay’, ‘marsh’ or ‘village’ in insular Latin. Salt was obtained from marshes and thus inland places where salt could be found often had ‘wick/wich’ in their name. Alternatively, ‘wic’ in Old English can refer to a building with a specific purpose (often in farming, dairy farming, trading or industrial settlement)
- -worth (Chatsworth, Emsworth) can mean ‘enclosure’ in Old English.
