Origins of place names
July 8, 2005
There are lots of place names ending in –dene or –dean around Brighton: Westdene, Rottigdean, Saltdean,Woodingdean, Coldean, Holligdean, Ovingdean, Roedean, Varndean, Withdean. Of course I had to find out what this ending means.
This is what the Concise Oxford Dictionary tells us:
Dene n. (also dean) Brit. 1 a narrow wooded valley. 2 a vale (esp. as the ending of place names). [Old English denu, related to DEN]
Wikipedia has great articles about British toponymy, including a list of generic forms in British place names.
For the origin of French place names, Lexilogos is probably your best bet.
Comments
On the etymologies of French place names, http://crehangec.free.fr/ is a mine of information (although the site is much less user-friendly than Lexilogos). I referred to it recently to find the origin of the placename 'Orange'; it goes back to a Gaulish phrase meaning roughly 'a field in a valley' (nothing to do with fruit).
Posted by Phil Edwards on July 11, 2005 2:57 PM
Im keen to find the origin of the word 'CARR'as in Carr Hill,The Carrs or Carr lane, Ive always assumed it referred to a charnel ground or the necessary burial site for the ancient poorer classes. related words? Carrion or Carcass.
Posted by Tom Brown on July 26, 2005 1:48 PM
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