The University of Nottingham

Melton Mowbray, Kingston Bagpuize, Bourton-on-the-Water — names plucked at random from the English countryside. But what do these and neighbouring names tell us about the history of our nation?

An awful lot, say the researchers at the University’s Institute for Name-Studies. That’s why they’ve developed the Key to English Place-Names, an online resource which gives the history of the place-names of more than 16,000 cities, towns and villages across England.

And there’s even a smartphone app for it, which uses GPS to find out the origins of the place names closest to your current position. Both the web-based Key and app have been developed with the University’s Web Technologies team.

Arranged by county, the Key takes the form of a map which users can click on to find the historical origins of their chosen place-name. A brief moment spent exploring the site reveals for example, that Kirkby Stephen in Westmorland is a village with a church (from Old Norse kirkju-býr) dedicated to St Stephen. Or that Godmanchester in Huntingdonshire means ‘Godmund’s Roman site’, probably referring to the Roman fortification south of the Ouse.

The site breaks down each place-name into the languages of which it’s made. For instance, Coppingford, in Huntingdonshire, is a mixture of Old Norse (kaup-maðr ‘a merchant, a trader’) and Old English ford to  translate as ‘merchants’ ford’. Other languages featured on the site include Old, Middle and Modern English, Latin, Old French, Old Norse and Celtic.

Dr Jayne Carroll and Dr Paul Cavill of the Institute for Name-Studies have recently relaunched the Key to English Place-Names, which has its origins in a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2004–2005) and has involved 15 academics and IT developers.

“Place is a major part of identity,” said Dr Carroll. “There are very few people who are not interested in what the name of their home town or village might mean. Place-names are a fascinating and unusual way to learn more about your area’s history.

“The names of villages and towns frequently refer to particular peoples, social and administrative activities, landscape, birds and animals, crops and vegetation, and most of them are well over a thousand years old. In other words, they can tell us something important about the history of those places, and how they were perceived, which would otherwise be unknown.”

Download the smartphone app through iTunes.