A note on place-names

by Michael Behrend

For more recent and more reliable information about place-names, we may refer to:

• Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, 4th edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1960.
• Kenneth Cameron et al., The Place-Names of Lincolnshire, Part Five: The Wapentake of Bradley, Nottingham, English Place-Name Society, 1997.

Clee. According to modern authorities, both Oliver (with cleis) and Watson (with céol-ee) are wrong about the origin of the name Clee. It is simply from Old English clæg, ‘clay, clayey soil’ (Ekwall, p. 110; Cameron, p. 15). (Clee in Shropshire probably has a different origin: Ekwall, pp. 110–111).

Some other place-name origins are:

Hole (alias Hoole, Howle, etc.) ‘The hollow’ (Cameron, p. 17). Hoole in Chesire has the same origin (Ekwall, p. 249). Cameron lists forms both with and without H. Forms with H are more common, but the local authorities have settled for the spelling Oole Road.

Holm or Holme. Old Scandinavian holmr, ‘small island, piece of dry land in a fen’ (Ekwall, p. 246); ‘higher ground amidst the marsh’ (Cameron, pp. 17–18). Ekwall (p. 246) lists many Holme names in England with the same origin.

Itterby. Old Scandinavian ytri byr, ‘outer by [village or homestead]’ (Ekwall, p. 267); ‘the outer secondary, farmstead, village (of Clee)’ (Cameron, p. 19). There is also an Ytterby in Sweden, after which the chemical element ytterbium is named.

Thrunscoe. A Scandinavian compound: þyrnir ‘a thorn-bush’ plus skógr ‘wood’ (Cameron, pp. 19–20; þ = th).

Weelsby. ‘Vífill’s farmstead, village’. Vífill, possibly meaning ‘beetle’ as Watson suggests, is a well attested West Scandinavian personal name (Cameron, pp. 165–166; Old Scandinavian V was pronounced like English W). But Wyville near Grantham was earlier Wiwel and has a different origin (Ekwall, p. 541).