This is a selection of dictionaries and studies that are often cited in discussions of names, both on this website and elsewhere. They are useful and authoritative resources for exploring names, produced by leading scholars in the field. Many of the dictionaries listed are wide in scope and therefore highly selective. They often have useful introductions.
Jump to:
General Name Studies (Onomastics)
Overviews
Clark, Cecily (1992), ‘Onomastics’, in The Cambridge History of the English Language, 1: The Beginnings to 1066, ed. Richard M. Hogg, pp. 452–89
Clark, Cecily (1992), ‘Onomastics’, in The Cambridge History of the English Language, 2: 1066–1476, ed. N. F. Blake (1992), pp. 542–606
Coates, Richard (1998), ‘Onomastics’, in The Cambridge History of the English Language, 4: 1776-1997, ed. Suzanne Romaine, pp. 330–72
Hough, Carole, ed. (2016), The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming [Includes place- and personal naming; theory and methodology; names and history, geography, linguistics, law etc., diverse name-sets from animals to aircraft].
Articles and bibliographies
A wide variety of articles, reviews, and bibliographies from 1984 onwards is published in the SNSBI’s journal Nomina. Volumes of Nomina are made available online about three years after publication.
Place-names of Britain and Ireland
Field, John (1980), Place-names of Great Britain and Ireland
Gelling, Margaret, W. F. H. Nicolaisen and Melville Richards (1986), Names of Towns and Cities in Britain [Covers England, Scotland, Wales]
Mills, A. D. (2011), The Oxford Dictionary of British Place-Names [Covers the whole of Britain and Ireland; compact – ideal reference work for home and journeys; also online (with subscription) through Oxford Reference]
Rivet, A. L. F. and Colin Smith, The Place-Names of Roman Britain
Bibliography
Spittal, Jeffrey and John Field (1990), A Reader’s Guide to the Place-Names of the United Kingdom [Valuable for pre-1990 publications; more recent bibliographic works are indicated at relevant points in this guide]
Place-names of England
Dictionaries
An extremely useful online resource is the Key to English Place-Names, though with the limitation that the early spellings that provide the evidence are not cited.
Ekwall, Eilert (1960), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, 4th edn (1st edn 1936) [Still extremely valuable]
Watts, Victor (2004), The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names [A weighty, essential work]
Cavill, Paul (2018), A New Dictionary of English Field-Names (2018) [Definitive work on English field-names]
See also Place-names of Britain and Ireland (above) for dictionaries by Field, Gelling, Nicholaisen and Richards, and Mills.
Introductions and studies
Cameron, Kenneth (1996), English Place-Names
Carroll, Jayne and David N. Parsons (2013), Perceptions of Place: Twenty-first Century Interpretations of English Place-Name Studies
Cox, Barrie (1994), English Inn and Tavern Names
Field, John (1993), A History of English Field-Names
Gelling, Margaret (1984), Place-Names in the Landscape
Gelling, Margaret (1997), Signposts to the Past: Place-Names and the History of England
Gelling, Margaret and Ann Cole (2014), The Landscape of Place-Names. 2nd edn (1st edn 2000)
Reaney, P. H. (1964), The Origin of English Place-Names [Valuable but dated in some respects]
Room, Adrian (1993), The Street-Names of England (1993)
Individual English counties & regions
EPNS: The Survey of English Place-Names (and English Place-Name Society)
The Survey volumes published by the English Place-Name Society (EPNS) are key resources, whose importance can hardly be overstated. Their titles are always simply The Place-Names of X, where X is the historic county, not its modern counterpart(s). There are complete surveys for most English counties, in varying levels of detail and numbers of volumes. For publishing details, see this List of Volumes.
The content of nearly all published volumes is available as a searchable database, the Digital Survey of English Place-Names; a replacement of this is currently (2024) in preparation.
The counties for which there is currently no survey or only a partial survey are:
- Cornwall: elements published but no survey volumes
- Durham: partial survey coverage
- Hampshire: work underway but no published volumes
- Herefordshire: work underway but no published volumes
- Lancashire: work underway but no published volumes
- Lincolnshire: partial survey coverage
- Kent: work underway but no published volumes
- Norfolk: partial survey coverage
- Northumberland: single-volume dictionary planned
- Somerset: single-volume dictionary planned
- Staffordshire: partial survey coverage; single-volume dictionary also planned
- Suffolk: single-volume dictionary available; full survey expected 2024–25
Keith Briggs has produced a map of the coverage of the Survey of English Place-Names.
For a guide to additions and corrections to survey volumes, see:
Hough, Carole (1995), The English Place-Name Survey: A Finding-List to Addenda and Corrigenda.
Non-survey volumes
Channel Islands:
Coates, Richard (1991), The Ancient & Modern Names of the Channel Islands: A Linguistic History
Cheshire:
Cavill, Paul, Stephen E. Harding and Judith Jesch, eds (2000), Wirral and its Viking Heritage. EPNS
Cornwall:
Padel, Oliver J. (1988), A Popular Dictionary of Cornish Place-Names
Cumberland (now Cumbria): see Lake District.
Dorset:
Mills, A. D. (1986), Dorset Place-Names: Their Origins and Meanings
Durham:
Mawer, Allen (1920), The Place-Names of Northumberland & Durham; also available online.
Watts, Victor (2002), A Dictionary of Durham Place-Names. EPNS Popular Series.
East Midlands:
Fellows-Jensen, Gillian (1978), Scandinavian Settlement Names in the East Midlands
Hampshire:
Coates, Richard (1993), Hampshire Place-Names: Based on the Collection of the English Place-Name Society
Gover, J. E. B. (1961), The Place-Names of Hampshire. Unpublished typescript. (Copy in Hampshire Record Office, Winchester.)
Herefordshire:
Bannister, A. T. (1916), The Place-Names of Herefordshire.
Isle of Man:
Broderick, George (2006), A Dictionary of Manx Place‑Names. EPNS Popular Series
Isle of Wight:
Mills, A. D. (1996), The Place-Names of the Isle of Wight: Their Origins and Meanings
Kökeritz, Helge (1940), The Place-Names of the Isle of Wight
Kent:
Wallenberg, J. K. (1931), Kentish Place-Names: a Topographical and Etymological Study of the Place-Name Material in Kentish Charters Dated Before the Conquest
Wallenberg, J. K. (1934), The Place-Names of Kent
Lake District:
Fellows-Jensen, Gillian (1985), Scandinavian Settlement Names in the North-West
Whaley, Diana (2006), A Dictionary of Lake District Place-Names. EPNS.
Lancashire:
Ekwall, Eilert (1922), The Place-Names of Lancashire; available online.
Kenyon, Denise (1984–85), ‘Addenda et corrigenda to E. Ekwall, The place names of Lancashire’. Journal of the English Place-Name Society 17: 20-106
Kenyon, Denise (1991), The Origins of Lancashire
Mills, David (1976), The Place-Names of Lancashire
Leicestershire:
Bourne, Jill (1981), The Place-Names of Leicestershire and Rutland. 2nd edition
Cox, Barrie (1970), The Place-Names of Leicestershire and Rutland. PhD, University of Nottingham.
Cox, Barrie (2005), A Dictionary of Leicestershire and Rutland Place-Names. EPNS Popular Series.
Lincolnshire:
Cameron, Kenneth (1998), A Dictionary of Lincolnshire Place-Names. EPNS Popular Series.
London:
Field, John (1980), Place-Names of Greater London
Mills, A. D. (2004), A Dictionary of London Place-Names. New edn
North-West:
Fellows-Jensen, Gillian (1985), Scandinavian Settlement Names in the North-West
Northumberland:
Mawer, Allen (1920), The Place-Names of Northumberland & Durham; available online
Beckensall, S. (2006), Place names and field names of Northumberland
Rutland:
Cox, Barrie (2005), A Dictionary of Leicestershire and Rutland Place-Names. EPNS Popular Series
Somerset:
Turner, A. G. C. (1951), The Place-Names of North Somerset. PhD, University of Cambridge
(See below for Bristol)
Staffordshire:
Horovitz, David (2005), The Place-Names of Staffordshire.
Suffolk:
Briggs, Keith and Kelly Kilpatrick (2016), A Dictionary of Suffolk Place-Names. EPNS Popular Series
Sussex:
Coates, Richard (2010), A Place‑Name History of the Parishes of Rottingdean and Ovingdean in Sussex. EPNS
(See below for Brighton and Hove)
West Midlands:
Gelling, Margaret (1992), The West Midlands in the Early Middle Ages
Westmorland (now Cumbria):
See Lake District.
Yorkshire:
Fellows-Jensen, Gillian (1972), Scandinavian Settlement Names in Yorkshire
(See below for Leeds)
Individual cities
Coates, Richard (2017), Your City’s Place-Names. Bristol. EPNS
Coates, Richard (2017), Your City’s Place-Names. Brighton and Hove. EPNS
Parkin, Harry (2017), Your City’s Place-Names. Leeds. EPNS
Further details of Your City’s Place-Names are available online
Articles and further bibliography for English place-names
A wide variety of articles, reviews, and bibliographies from 1984 (vol. 8) onwards is published in SNSBI’s journal Nomina and from 1987-88 (vol. 20) in the Journal of the English Place-Name Society.
Place-Names of Ireland
Flanagan, Deirdre and Laurence Flanagan (1994), Irish Place-Names
McKay, Patrick (1999), A Dictionary of Ulster Place-Names
Ó Riain, Pádraig, Diarmuid Ó Murchadha, Kevin Murray and Emma Nic Cárthaigh (2003–20, in progress), Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames, 8 fascicles, A–Duthaire
Among important online resources are:
Logainm.ie, the Placenames Database of Ireland, an interactive glossary of words commonly found in Irish place-names (and more)
PlacenamesNI.org, an interactive database from the Northern Ireland Place-Names Project
See also Place-names of Britain and Ireland for dictionaries by Field, Gelling, Nicholaisen and Richards, and Mills
Individual counties of Northern Ireland
Detailed county surveys in the series Place-Names of Northern Ireland, published by The Queen’s University, Belfast, are:
Vol. 1 Toner, Gregory. and Micheal Ó Mainnín (1992), County Down I, Newry and South-West Down
Vol. 2 Hughes, A. J. and R. J. Hannan (1992), County Down II, The Ards
Vol. 3 Ó Mainnín, Micheal (1993), County Down III, The Mournes
Vol. 4 McKay, Patrick (1995), County Antrim I, The Baronies of Toome
Vol. 5 Toner, Gregory (1996), County Derry I, The Moyola Valley
Vol. 6 Muhr, Kay (1996), County Down IV, North-West Down/Iveagh
Vol. 7 Mac Gabhann, F. (1997), County Antrim II, Ballycastle and North-East Antrim
Vol. 8 McKay, Patrick (2004), County Fermanagh I, Lisnaskea and District: the Parish of Aghalurcher
Articles on Irish place-names
Ainm, the journal of the Ulster Place-Name Society, contains articles and reviews (in Irish and English) relating to Irish place-names and personal names. For contents see the Ulster Place-Name Society website: ‘Journal’.
Place-Names of Scotland
A full and authoritative dictionary for the whole of Scotland is still to come, but the standard book on Scottish place-names, fully indexed, is:
Nicolaisen, W. F. H. (2001), Scottish Place-Names: Their Study and Significance (new edn)
Of the short guides available these are recommended:
Grant, Alison (2010), The Pocket Guide to Scottish Place-Names
Scott, Maggie (2008), Scottish Place-Names [with a focus on Scots-language place-name elements of various origins]
See also Place-names of Britain and Ireland above for dictionaries by Field, Gelling, Nicholaisen and Richards, and Mills
For particular aspects of Scotland’s place-names see:
Drummond, Peter (2010), Scottish Hill-Names: The Origin and Meaning of the Names of Scotland’s Hills and Mountains, revised edn
Watson, William J. (1926), The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland
Williamson, May G. (1942), The Non-Celtic Place-Names of the Scottish Border Counties
Online resources for individual types of place-name are:
James, Alan (2024), Brittonic Language in the Old North, 3 vols, revised edn
The Database of Scottish Hagiotoponyms [a.k.a. Saints in Scottish Place-Names; provides country-wide coverage of place-names containing saints’ names].
Introductions to Gaelic Place-Names and Scots Place-Names (by Simon Taylor) and to Scandinavian Place-Names in Scotland (by Anke-Beate Stahl), available as Ordnance Survey Guides.
Important advances in this field are reviewed in:
Taylor, Simon (2021), ’30 years of Scottish name studies’: slides
Individual Scottish counties & regions
Detailed county surveys in the series The Survey of Scottish Place-Names are:
Vol. 1 Taylor, Simon and Gilbert Márkus (2006), The Place-Names of Fife 1, West Fife between Leven and Forth; and see Fife Place-name Data
Vol. 2 Taylor, Simon and Gilbert Márkus (2008), The Place-Names of Fife 2, Central Fife between the Rivers Leven and Eden
Vol. 3 Taylor, Simon and Gilbert Márkus (2009), The Place-Names of Fife 3, St Andrews and East Neuk
Vol. 4 Taylor, Simon and Gilbert Márkus (2010), The Place-Names of Fife 4, North Fife between Eden and Tay
Vol. 5 Taylor, Simon and Gilbert Márkus (2012), The Place-Names of Fife 5, Discussions, Glossaries and Edited Texts
Vol. 6 Márkus, Gilbert (2012), The Place-Names of Bute
Vol. 7 Taylor, Simon, Peter McNiven and Eila Williamson (2017), The Place-Names of Kinross-shire
Vol. 8 Taylor, Simon, Thomas Owen Clancy, Peter McNiven and Eila Williamson (2020), The Place-Names of Clackmannanshire
A first volume for Berwickshire is forthcoming, and for an online resource see The Berwickshire Place-Name Resource.
Articles and further bibliography for Scottish place-names
A wide variety of articles, reviews, and bibliographies is published in The Journal of Scottish Name Studies; see also Scottish Place-Name News
An important source of bibliography for Scotland including regional studies is the Scottish Place-Name Society bibliography webpage
Place-Names of Wales
Morgan, Richard (2001), A Study of Montgomeryshire Place-Names
Morgan, Richard (2005), Place-Names of Gwent
Morgan, Richard (2018), Place-Names of Glamorgan
Morgan, Richard (2022), Place-Names of Carmarthenshire
Owen, Hywel Wyn (1994), The Place-Names of East Flintshire
Owen, Hywel Wyn (1998), The Place-Names of Wales [A useful pocket guide]
Owen, Hywel Wyn and Richard Morgan (2007), Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales [A key resource]
Owen, Hywel Wyn and Ken Lloyd Gruffydd (2017), Place-Names of Flintshire
Thomas, R. J. (1938) Enwau Afonydd a Nentydd Cymru [Names of rivers and streams in Wales]
See also Place-names of Britain and Ireland above for dictionaries by Field, Gelling, Nicholaisen and Richards, and Mills
An invaluable source of place-name forms is the Archif Melville Richards/Melville Richards Archive.
Important advances in this field are reviewed in:
Owen, Hywel Wyn (2021), ‘Place-name studies in Wales thirty years on’: slides
Further bibliography for Welsh place-names
An important source of bibliography for Wales including regional studies is under the “resources” section of the website of the Cymdeithas Enwau Lleoedd Cymru/Welsh Place-Name Society.
Place-Names of the world
Everett-Heath, John (2020), Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place-Names [print & online (with subscription) through Oxford Reference]
Room, Adrian (1987), Place-Names of the World
Stewart, George R. (1975), Names on the Globe [Out of print]
Personal names
Personal names of Britain and Ireland
Hanks, Patrick, Kate Hardcastle and Flavia Hodges (2019), Oxford Dictionary of First Names [print 2006, online (with subscription) through Oxford Reference 2019]
Hanks, Patrick, Richard Coates and Peter McClure (2016), Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland [in print in 4 vols & online (with subscription) through Oxford Reference. Introduction reprinted in Parkin 2021]
McClure, Peter (2015), ‘Personal and surname dictionaries’, in Oxford Handbook of Lexicography, ed. Philip Durkin, 271-91 [A critique of dictionaries]
McKinley, R. A. (1990), A History of British Surnames
Parkin, Harry (2021), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain
Reaney, P. H. (1967), The Origin of English Surnames
Reaney, P. H., revised by R. M. Wilson (1976), A Dictionary of British Surnames [A classic, but now comprehensively superseded by Hanks, Coates & McClure 2016]
Personal names of England
Briggs, Keith (2021), An Index to Personal Names in English Place-Names (2021). Available for free online.
Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England [PASE; database of all recorded inhabitants of England, late C7th-late 11th centuries]
Hey, David (1997), ‘Locating the home of a family name’, Appendix to Reaney and Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames, revised 3rd edn
Hey, David (2000), Family Names and Family History
McClure, Peter (1979), ‘Patterns of migration in the late Middle Ages: the evidence of English place-name surnames’, Economic History Review, 2nd series, 32, 167—82
McClure, Peter (2013), ‘Explaining English surnames: linguistic ambiguity and the importance of context. Part I’, Nomina 36 (2013), 1–33. Part II, ‘Interpreting the modern data’, Nomina 37 (2014), 109–41
McClure, Peter (2021), ‘English personal name studies since 1991’: slides and text , with overview and further bibliography
Reaney, P. H. and R. M. Wilson (1997), A Dictionary of English Surnames. Revised 3rd edn
Redmonds, George (2004), Christian Names in Local and Family History
Redmonds, George (1997), Surnames and Genealogy: A New Approach
Redmonds, George, David Hey and Turi King (2015), Surnames, DNA and Family History. Revised edn
Withycombe, E. G. (1977), Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names
Important advances in this field are reviewed in:
McClure, Peter (2021), ‘English personal name studies since 1991’ : slides and text
Surnames of individual English counties
McKinley, Richard (1975), Surnames of Norfolk and Suffolk in the Middle Ages
McKinley, Richard (1977), Surnames of Oxfordshire
McKinley, Richard (1988), Surnames of Sussex
McKinley, Richard (1981), Surnames of Lancashire
Postles, David (1995), Surnames of Devon
Postles, David (1998), Surnames of Leicestershire and Rutland
Redmonds, George (1973), Surnames of Yorkshire West Riding
Redmonds, George (2015), A Dictionary of Yorkshire Surnames
Tooth, Edgar (2000–2010), The Distinctive Surnames of North Staffordshire, 4 vols
Personal names of Scotland
People of Medieval Scotland (PoMS) is an online database of all known people of Scotland between 1093 and 1314
Black, George Fraser (1946), The Surnames of Scotland [Includes some early forenames]
And see Personal names of Britain and Ireland above.
Personal names of Wales
Morgan, T. J. and Prys Morgan (1985), Welsh Surnames
Rowlands, John and Sheila (2014), The Surnames of Wales. 2nd edn
And see Personal names of Britain and Ireland above
Personal names of Ireland and the Isle of Man
Bell, Robert (1988), The Book of Ulster Surnames
Kneen, J. J. (1937), The Personal Names of the Isle of Man
MacLysaght, Edward (1985), The Surnames of Ireland, 6th edn
Muhr, Kay and Liam Ó hAisibéil (2021), The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names of Ireland (print & online (with subscription) through Oxford Reference)
Woulfe, Patrick (1923), Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames
And see Personal names of Britain and Ireland above.
Articles
Ainm, the journal of the Ulster Place-Name Society, contains articles and reviews (in Irish and English) relating to Irish place-names and personal names. For contents see the Ulster Place-Name Society website: ‘Journal’.
Important advances in this field are reviewed in:
Muhr, Kay (2021), ‘Progress in Irish family names’: slides.
©Diana Whaley 2024
With thanks to: Keith Briggs, Kathryn Bullen, Carole Hough, Peter McClure & Eleanor Rye.