What's in a Name?

Place Names : Habitative Names

Habitative names form a much larger group. The denoted inhabited places from the start, whether homesteads, farms or enclosures, villages or hamlets, strongholds, cottages, or other kinds of building or settlement. In the names of this type the second element describes the kind of habitation, and among others the Old English elements hām ‘homestead’, tūn ‘farm’, worth ‘enclosure’, wīc ‘dwelling’, cot ‘cottage’, burh ‘stronghold’, and the Old Scandinavian elements bý ‘farmstead’ and thorp ‘outlying farmstead’ are particularly common, as in names like Streatham, Middleton, Lulworth, Ipswich, Didcot, Aylesbury, Grimsby, and Woodthorpe. Detailed studies of the various habitative elements have shown that they had a wide range of meanings which varied according to their use at different periods or in different parts of the country or in combination with other elements. For example, Old English tūn may have its original meaning ‘enclosure’ in some names, whereas in others ‘farmstead’, ‘village’, ‘manor’, or ‘estate’ may be more appropriate.

Folk Names
Topographic Names

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