Toponymy of England - Processes and Patterns in British Toponymy

Processes and Patterns in British Toponymy

For a general list of toponymic processes, see Place name origins.

• Back-formation: the process whereby names are derived from one another in the opposite direction to that which would be expected - for example, rivers with an obsolete/forgotten name are often renamed after a town on its banks rather than vice versa. The river running through Rochdale became known as the 'Roch' through this process. Cambridge, perhaps uniquely, illustrates both normal and back-formation. Originally Grontabricc, a bridge on the Granta, the name became Cantebruge and then Cambrugge, from which the river was renamed Cam.

• Element order: In Germanic languages, and thus in Old English and Old Norse place names, the substantive element is generally preceded by its modifier(s); 'Badecca's spring' (Bakewell). In Celtic place names, the order is usually reversed, with the thing being described (hill, valley, farm etc.) as the first element: e.g. Tregonebris 'settlement (of) Cunebris', Aberdeen 'mouth (of the) Dee'. This is not true of all Celtic names; e.g. Malvern 'bald hill' (cf. W. moel + bryn).

• Translation: The general similarity of Old Norse and Old English meant that place names in the Danelaw were often simply 'Norsified'. For instance, Askrigg in Yorkshire, 'ash ridge'; whilst the first element is indubitably the Norse asc (pronounced "ask"), ask- could easily represent a "Norsification" of the Old English element æsc (pronounced "ash"). In this case both asc and æsc mean the same - 'ash' (tree).

• False analogy: Sometimes, however, the place names were changed to match their own pronunciation habits without reference to the original meaning. Thus Skipton should be 'Shipton' (Old English scipetun - 'sheep farm'). However since sh in Old English was usually cognate with sk in Old Norse, the name became changed by false analogy to Skipton, in this way losing its meaning (since the Old Norse for sheep was entirely different from the Old English).