Personal-Names and Place-names

More than once already, in giving a brief etymology of a place-name, we have silently assumed that one element is the name of some former owner, occupier or other early inhabitant. We still call at the Smiths’, shop at Harrod’s and lunch at Simpson’s. A surname like Vickers often appears in medieval records as (Agnes) atte Vicares, Agnes who was the servant at the vicar’s (house). Similar possessive formations have given rise to place-names from the earliest days of the Saxon invasion, but always combined with some word defining the actual possession, -hām (homestead), -tūn (farm), -lēah (wood), etc. Few medieval spellings are needed to show that Alderton (Nth), Harrietsham (K) and Whiteoxmead (So) contain the OE personal-names Aldhere, Heregeard and Hwituc respectively, or that Aslockton (Nt), Kettlestone (Nf) and Thursaston (Ch) are derived from the Scandinavian personal-names Áslákr, Ketil and Porsteinn. Nor is there any doubt, in spite of their Scandinavian ending, that Allonby (Cu), Johnby (Cu) and Jolby (NRY) were named from men who bore the post-Conquest names of Aleyn, John and Johel, whilst Jordanthorpe and Waterthorpe Farm (Db) were clearly the outlying farms of Jordan and Walter, both OFr names. In the south-western counties we find the English -ton compounded with a Norman surname. Lovistone (D) was held by William Lovel in 1303, Puxton (So) by Robert Puckerel in 1158, and Sarson (Ha), Savageston 1363, by Richard le Salvage in 1203.