Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I have always been interested in etymology and I have always been curious about how certain places et their names, so I found this to be a fascinating read. What I learned is that the history of English places names is connected to the history of England: Some names have a Celtic origin; others come from the time of the Romans; still more come from other cultures that settled there however briefly: there are Scandinavian names, Norse, Welsh, and Anglo-Saxon!

I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is a really well researched and interesting history of place names in England. I learned so much about the people, linguistics and geography that influenced names.
The beginning of the book gives a brief history of the Celts, Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Norman words and phrases that made their way into place names. Some of the information I had heard before but the underlying theme of how this history affected the language and place names of England was given context.
When I got to the alphabetical names sorted by region I must admit that I did not read them all one by one but found names of places that I had been and found their origins, which was so interesting, Occasionally I will refer to this book when I read about a place or someone talks about it,
And when international travel starts again I will visit England and take this handy and interesting reference book along with me.

I had never really considered where our place names have come from or which historical events affected how places were known but this book gives explanations to how locations were identified. It is well researched and covers a vast number of cities, towns, villages and hamlets and is divided into geographical location. It was fascinating to learn about the place names I am familiar with but I would also use this book when travelling throughout the country to learn more about particular locations and their history.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Word Nerd in me absolutely loved this little gem of a book. I will say that it is probably better suited to reading a physical copy, as it is not a book you will necessarily read straight through, as I did. The content is better suited to be something you can kind of hop in and out of as-needed or depending on your level of interest in certain places. The book divides England up into regions and then from their it recounts some explanations of how places came to be named as they are today. It would get rather repetitive for a more casual reader (and honestly did for me too a little bit) but overall the information was really interesting and something I kept returning to frequently.

For those unaware, there is an incredibly rich history in the UK. As far back as we can see, from the Celtic people, to the Romans in Britain, to the Viking invaders, to the Anglo-Saxons, then the French Normans, as well as the natural evolution over time that evolved, these places sound quite familiar in many instances, and wholly alien in others. I loved reading about the many hamlet and village names that could be traced all the way back to the Celts. There were also occasions where the exact development of the place name is unknown, so various theories are put forth and each is given enough of an explanation for the reader to understand why either makes sense.

A lot of the names we know today came mainly from nature. I was amused to find that Gotham comes from the words 'goat' and 'hamm' smooshed together. Hamm meant an enclosure, so Gotham literally means a goat enclosure.

Though there is no way the book could cover every single hamlet, village, town, and city in England, this is a valiant attempt - and the author even admits it would be difficult. I feel the author chose a great selection of place names to represent a wide variety of etymologic evolution. We are also given enough background that you could probably figure out some place names you are interested in that were not covered in the book.

I also enjoyed the absolutely ridiculous-bordering-on-downright-rude names that the author mentioned and got quite a good chuckle from them. I should have jotted a few down but was giggling so much I didn't even think about it. Yes, sometimes I have the maturity of a twelve year old.

All in all a fun little gem, but be sure to check out a physical copy instead of a digital one.

A lot of different places introduced in the book. You get a brief introduction/history of the place before moving onto the next place. You get a map of the area as well. Good if you like knowing the meaning of a place.

I am an Anglophile and love to visit the UK. This book would be great fun as we drive around when visiting my friend. She has another book like this one that goes into the origins of place names. I do like this one as the text seems clearer and more straight forward. It was a treat to go through and pick out places I have been and things I have seen. I appreciated the section at the beginning that went into the history of England and therefore the evolution of the language. It was a timely reminder of the influences.
I confess I was disappointed that one of my favourite names, a village just down the road from my friend, was missing. I think Wye Piddle should be in the next version for certain. It just sounds so whimsical. The other problem I had with this book was I read an ARC on my Kindle. This is the kind of book I would love in paperback form so I could dip in and out easily. If there is a choice of format, take the physical copy.
Four purrs and two paws up.

This book has been extensively researched. It contains the origin and meaning of virtually every village, town or city in England. Having said that, I was a little disappointed that my own town was not included.

However, I think that this would be a go to book for anyone wanting to garner information about the origin of place names. It was highly interesting to read the section regarding the origin of the general prefixes and suffixes that many place names have.

The majority of the book concerns the meaning of the individual place names which are dealt with on a regional basis. It is probably not a book that a reader would read from beginning to end. Rather it is a dip into book that would sit quite happily within the book collections of most readers who are interested in English history.

This book covers a lot of ground in a relatively small number of pages and for my interest level, it got it just right. For me, it was not a book to be read cover to cover but to dip into as time and interest required. Whilst that may sound a little slipshod, it is not as I took a deliberate dip to check out the places that I already know and will, when COVID-19 lets us roam again, dip in each time I visit a place new to me.

Along with the explanations of individual place names there is a lot of background information on how, in general, names came about and why they came about. All in all a nice book to keep in the car.

Acton Trussell, Long Duckmanton, Bradfield Combust – yes, many are the places in England that have peculiar names to distinguish them (and that's before we get to the meme-friendly rude names). This book admits there are far too many places in all for it to cover, but it does make a very good fist of explaining why the more significant are so titled, and gives handy background to our history as regards to who came over and when and what place-names they chose to suit themselves. Thus, with the knowledge within, you can work out what pretty much any place name might have meant. Observations from a strong browse range from the general – it's surprising how many places were named in their Latin version, even in the middle ages – to the specific – isn't it fun to think of waterways called "River River" and heights called "Hill Hill"? Both feature.

I think the book could have been lighter (or more comprehensive) without its copious references back to the Domesday Book, although that major juncture in our history, when we became soundly Normanised, is clearly a decent point in time to refer back to and see what was yclept what. I might have hoped for it to go into pronunciation – does it matter that we have a Gillingham with both a hard and a soft opening G? I also think Beaconsfield's entry is wrong, and the beech tree version is correct – and I hope the proof-reading corrected the highly bodged history of Rutland that my preview copy tried to submit, and decides the derivation of Totnes – other entries give a very different reason than the one for the actual place. All in all, this is a thorough reference work, and reads quite warmly considering the repetitive, dry nature of its subject. It's not for dipping in to for everyone on the bus to work, but I wish it success.

An interesting book for historians and linguists, but probably not something one would read from cover to cover. It could be very useful as a reference book for authors of historical fiction set in England or for creating fantasy worlds (Tolkien used this knowledge obviously for his creation of Middle-Earth). The last chapter about the oddest place names was just hilarious.

Super interesting book, especially for people interested in words and history. Loved it, lots of fun!

This book will appeal to anyone who is interested in words and history.
The author tracks back to Anglo Saxon times to tell us about common place name origins to do with mainly land ownership. Of course, many of these names were influenced by the later Viking invasion and the establishment of the Danelaw. The later Norman invasion added a stratum to this practice of naming places based on land ownership and the Domesday/Doomsday Book is an invaluable source for these later additions as well as the original Anglo-Saxon names. Examples are also given of naming that can be attributed to other sources rather than land ownership e.g. saints' names in Cornwall.
It had never struck me before reading this book that as many place names mark land ownership from Anglo-Saxon times, that there are only a few places which are named after women because they generally weren't landowners. Read the book to find out 5 surprising exceptions.
After the general principles- always with illustrative examples and general early English history, the author then divides the names into areas e.g. East Anglia. I wonder how many people will use the Contents page/ Index to go straight to their local area or places that they know well?
There is an ending chapter on odd and unusual place names which will appeal to all. There is also a Bibliography for those who want to know more.
I do wonder if the Glossary would have been better placed at the end of the book rather than the beginning or if in the first few chapters there is already enough explanation of some of the terms like thane?

What an interesting book and ideal for dipping into when you hear about/visit a new place as understanding the history of the name will help you understand the place itself.

A History of English Placenames and Where They Came From starts with a useful glossary of terms before covering elements of placenames, such as “bury” and “ham”. Those elements occur in a huge number of English placenames and it helps to understand them. It’s also interesting to be able to tell whether the element is Celtic, Norse, Old English, etc.. We then get a brief run through English history with particular attention paid to the various invasions (Celts, Romans, Saxons, Angles, etc.)

Part Three then combines the previous two sections to explain how places get their names. For example, Dudley described a leah (a woodland clearing in Old English) associated with a man called Dud or Dudda. Part Four explains land ownership and tenancy: nobility, commoners and serfs.

Part Five is the meat of the book. This covers England (and remember this is a book of English placenames, not Scottish or Welsh), region by region, picking out the author’s chosen names. I confess, rather than reading this section end to end, I simply picked out areas that I know, like the North-West and the South-West, and looked for familiar names.

I have mixed views about the actual placename entries. Chunks that are nothing to do with the name are copied from the Domesday Book but, to be fair, the entries would be a bit brief without these and the other little chunks of history that the author slips in. And they’d be less interesting, too.

Finally, there is a bibliography. That includes several dictionaries of placenames. Which leads one to the question, “At whom is this book aimed?”. Margaret Gelling’s Place-names in the Landscape is much more comprehensive than Moss’s Part One. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names by Eilert Ekwall covers many more places than Moss’s Part Five. Moss’s book is less daunting than either of the other two and would serve as an introduction to the topic, but anyone really interested in the topic would be better served by a book that has more depth and more coverage. Because of that comparison, I don't feel I can give it more than three stars - sorry!

#AHistoryofEnglishPlaceNamesandWhereTheyCameFrom #NetGalley

What did I get myself into?
We do not usually sit and think of the meaning of place names. We do not attribute much meaning to them, we just remember the feeling and memories those places left on us. However, you have got to admit that English place names are uniquely strange and curious and my blood runs faster when I get myself into linguistic discoveries as a linguist, language enthusiast and translator whose biggest dream is to become a polyglot.
Well, this is what I got myself into: A very detailed, well-researched reference book that offers interesting etymological facts.
Apparently English place names take their roots from Celtic people, Romans, Anglo-saxon and Scandinavian culture and Norse and Welsh languages, not to forget early christian settlements and later the religious impact, the effect of monarchy and aristocrats even females, the ladies of the land, though they did not have rights of ownership, left their footprints, too. This is a linguistic feast for language lovers and etymology enthusiast.
We travel on a map of Britain to places and settlements and analyze the etymological backgrounds of the names. The plain place names, which meant nothing before now have a character, a history and meaning History and linguistics. The places become more tangible with modern-day interpretations of archaic languages and it was quite fascinating to learn that most names come from nature - trees, plants, rivers and seas.
Learning Liverpool meant muddy pool, Manchester - breast-shaped hill (!!), Oxford - the river where the oxen cross and Gotham, which is derived from the words “Goat” and “Hamm” - an enclosure -, thus mean “an enclosure where the goats are kept,” were some of the most interesting facts of the book. Well suck it Batman!
A profound and informative book for the professionals and enthusiasts. My only caveat is that it may be too much for a casual reader and reading this book in one sitting may be overwhelming but a great resource nonetheless.

An interesting book about the origins of places and towns of England. Somewhat repetitive but quite informative, you can tell a lot of research was done and done well. I received an e-book from NetGalley in return for an unbiased review.

An amazing researched resource in one handy volume! If you're at all curious about English place names and where they came from, you'll learn something here. I found it fascinating, though more to browse through than to read cover-to-cover. I had always wondered where the name Hockering came from (my ancestors were from there). Apparently, it comes from a word meaning "rounded hill". The word nerd in me is pleased!