Why do so many English towns end in ham?

In the olden days most would of been known as a Shire hence the names. Ham on the other hand was the anglo saxon word for village so most of these areas probably started out as small villages. The suffix “ham” comes from old Saxon words mean either “settlement” or hamm, meaning “meadow”.

Why do so many towns end in Ville?

The suffix -ville is derived from the French, meaning city or town. In the Middle Ages the word referenced a farm. It is sometimes used as a shortened version of village which is defined as a community smaller than a town and often in rural areas. Fishing villages of course were adjacent to water.

Why do towns end in Ton?

Ton: This word ending, that remains very familiar today, was used to describe a settlement. A name ending in ton refers to a farmstead or village. Wich, wych or wick: This relates to some sort of specialised farm, and turns up in places like Droitwich, Nantwich, and also the Aldwych in London.

What is the most common place name in the UK?

Newport is one of the most common names found in Britain with at least 10 decent-sized towns sharing this name.

Why do English towns end in by?

A popular (and fairly obvious) theory links the name to deer — a settlement important for deer hunting — but no one is sure. The -by, incidentally, is a common ending for towns inhabited by the Vikings during the Danelaw settlement.

Why do so many places in England end in Shire?

“Shire” is just the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of the old French word “county”, so Yorkshire, for example, means “County of York”. (Yorkshire was so vast that for much of its history it was split into east, west and north “ridings”, which basically just means “thirds”.)

Why do towns end in Boro?

Centuries ago these suffixes said a lot about a town’s demographics. The distinctions were made according to population size and the names could change as a town grew. A borough, also -boro, -burg or -bury, comes from the Anglo-Saxon term for towns surrounded by walls or forts.

Why do so many towns in Pa end in Burg?

“Burg” is the German word for a fortified town or castle. Many of the settlers in PA were German. So where in other places a town that grew up around a fort might become, say, Fort Worth in PA it became xxxburg – Pittsburg grew up at the location of Fort Pitt.

Why do so many towns end in mouth?

Basically, if its coastal, and has mouth in the name, it’s because of a nearby river or estuary. In a similar vein, town names with Pool in the name stem from nearby tidal creeks or pools.

Why do towns end in by?

These -by endings are generally places where the Vikings settled first. In Yorkshire there are 210 -by place names. The -by has passed into English as ‘by-law’ meaning the local law of the town or village.