- The majority of Place Names currently in use in England were created by the Anglo Saxons and if an English Town had a Roman origin, they included it in the Place Name.
- Castris is Latin for Camp. So if an English Town has Chester, Caster, Caistor or Cester in its name, it refers to a Roman Fort once being there.
Roman Place Names
The Anglo Saxons called towns with Roman origins by the following Place Names:
- Caistor, Caster, Cester or Chester
- meaning a Roman Camp.
- Wich or Wick
- the Anglo Saxon word wic was derived from the Roman word vicus, meaning a settlement.
- Strat or Street
- from the word straet, meaning a Roman road.
- Stan, Stam, Stain or Stone
- from the word stan meaning stone, a house beside a Roman stone structure.
- Wall
- meaning the ruins of a building, usually Roman.
Celtic Place Names
The Anglo Saxons also often reused the original Celtic pre-Roman name.
- Coombe or Combe (valley)
- Pen (hill or headland)
Anglo Saxon Place Names
Saxon Place Names have the following endings in their names:
- Ac (oak)
- Ald (old)
- Ask (ash tree)
- Burgh, Borough or Bury (fort or fortified place from the word burh or burg)
- Burn and Bourne (brook or stream, from the word burna)
- Chap, Cheap pr Chip (market town, from the word ceap meaning barter)
- Coln or Colne (Stone or Pebble)
- Cot or Cote (poor man’s home)
- Dean, Den or Dene (valley or hollow)
- Don (hill)
- Easter (from the Goddess of Spring, Eostre)
- Ey, Ay or Ea (island, from the word eg pronounced ee)
- Feld or Field (village)
- Fold (pasture area)
- Fleet (creek)
- Ford (river crossing)
- Gate (from geat meaning Way)
- Ham (village or estate)
- Holt (wood)
- Hoo (spur of a hill)
- Hurst (clearing in a wooded hill)
- Ing (people)
- Hastings (Haestor’s people)
- Kirk, Minster or Eccles (from the name of the Christian church, Ecclesia)
- Leigh, Ley or Lee (wood or forest clearing)
- Low (low hill, from the word hlaw)
- Mead (open grazing land)
- Mer, Mere or Mar (lake)
- Mor or Moor (wasteland)
- Mouth (river mouth from the word mutha)
- Ney (island)
- Pen, Penn or Penning (enclosure)
- Port (market town)
- Shaw, Holt and Hot (wood)
- Stead or Sted (place)
- Strat or Street (from the word straet, meaning a Roman road)
- Stoc pr Stoke (farm or settlement)
- Stan, Stam, Stain or Stone (from the word stan meaning stone, a house by a Roman stone structure)
- Stowe or Stow (Religious Meeting Place, from the word stou)
- Thor or Thore (of the God, Thor)
- Thur (of the God, Thunor)
- Ton or Tun (village or farm)
- Tree (tree, same word)
- Tue (of the God, Tiw)
- Wall (meaning the ruins of a building, usually Roman)
- Weald, Wald or Wold (forest)
- Wednes or Woodnes (of the God, Woden)
- Well, Wel (from the word Wella, a Well)
- Wich, Wick or Wych (farm)
- The Anglo Saxon word – wic was derived from the Roman word Vicus, meaning a settlement.
- Woolwich (wool from the vicus or farm)
- Worth (enclosure)
The Saxons’ Counties
- Essex (East Saxons)
- Sussex (South Saxons)
- Wessex (West Saxons)
- Middlesex (Middle Saxons)
The Heptarchy of 7 Saxon Kingdoms (5th-8th century CE)
- East Anglia
- Mercia
- Northumbria
- Kent
- Sussex
- Wessex
- Essex
The Jutes’ Counties
- Kent (Kentings, meaning men of Kent)
The Angles’ Counties
- East Anglia: Norfolk (north folk) and Suffolk (south folk).
Old Norse (Viking: 9th-11th century CE)
- By (settlement)
- Beck (stream)
- Thorpe (small village)
- Thwaite (settlement in a clearing in the forest)
- Toft (smallholding)
Norman Place Names (after 1066 CE)
The Normans named towns after the owner:
- King: (Kings Lynne)
- Queen: (Queenborough)
- Prince: (Princes Risborough)
- Bishop: Bishop Auckland (Bishop’s Stortford)
- Abbott: Newton Abbott
- Prior: (Swaffham Prior)
- Ville: (meaning settlement – Pentonville, Bourneville)