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Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland
The SNSBI exists to promote the study of place-names, personal names, and other names. It has members within and beyond Britain and Ireland, some of them academics (students or staff) in relevant fields, but most from other walks of life.
This month's name story is by Emeritus Professor Diana Whaley, Newcastle University. Explore the long and winding history of the River Coquet, one of Northumberland’s most attractive rivers!![]()
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The River Coquet rises in the Cheviot Hills and flows about forty miles to the North Sea at Amble. The name Coquet looks French, but along with many river-names it arose long before French was used in England, and has a long and winding history, rather like the course of the river itself.![]()
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The name is pre-English and probably contains the Brittonic (Celtic) word cocc ‘red’, an older relative of modern Welsh coch. The ending is thought likely to be wedd, meaning ‘appearance’ and as Richard Coates notes, the name Coquet is a great rarity: a pre-English river-name containing two roots. The geology of Upper Coquetdale is rich in a pink-coloured porphyrite, and the river flows through reddish-brown rocks and soil for much of its lower course. The water has that colour especially at times of flood.![]()
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Just as the River Coquet rises deep in the Celtic-named Cheviot Hills (where Cheviot probably means ‘ridge’), its name arises from a Celtic language spoken widely throughout Britain from the first millennium BC; see Languages). And these early origins are shared with most of the great rivers of Britain. Some river-names such as Avon, Frome, Leven and Wear appear to be early Celtic but many, including Ouse, Severn, Thames, Trent and Wye, are believed to originate in a still older language. Since rivers are striking linear features in the landscape their names tend to be very widely known and easily transmitted from speakers of one language to another. However, it seems that the next group of speakers misunderstood the name of the Coquet.![]()
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The History of St Cuthbert (Historia de Sancto Cuthberto) of the late eleventh century shows the river-name transformed into a very English-looking Cocwudu ‘cock wood’, referring to male birds, perhaps woodcock. In a sense this is a mistake, a case of folk etymology or popular etymology where people re-form a name to make sense of it, but it is curiously appropriate since this central area of Northumberland was historically quite heavily wooded. ![]()
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The spelling Coket then dominates in late medieval documents, perhaps influenced by French-trained scribes, but the still more French-influenced variant Coquet emerges as the standard modern spelling. The name doesn’t sound French, however: it’s pronounced with the stress on ‘Co-’, and not like the word ‘coquette’.![]()
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www.snsbi.org.uk
The Coquet rises in the Cheviot Hills and flows about forty miles to the North Sea at Amble. The name Coquet looks French, but along with many river-names it has a long and winding history.
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SNSBI Essay Prize winners for 2025!![]()
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We are delighted to announce that we have two joint winners for the 2025 SNSBI Essay Prize:![]()
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Alina Brust, University of Glasgow: "Reflections of Gaelic Heritage in the Street Names of Girvan"![]()
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Xiang Lin, The University of Edinburgh: "Structure and Formation of bilingual Hong Kong street-names"![]()
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Congratulations to both of them!
Silver coins and jewellery and other treasures appear in English place-names – but all that glisters is not gold! Read about 'Golden Hopes', written by Jeremy Harte.![]()
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Forty-eight Dunstable jurors could not solve the mystery of Goldenlowe. It was a burial mound, like many a hlāw, and in 1290 a jury reported that Matthew Tyler found treasure there. Instead of reporting this as the law required, he kept the money, which passed to Adam Rouse. While Adam kicked his heels in jail, a second double jury overturned the verdict of the first, and finally a third unprejudiced set from outside the town found he was the victim of attempted blackmail and let him free.![]()
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Whether the claims were real or invented, people evidently associated Goldenlowe with treasure. It’s not unusual for places to be named after valuables that have been found there. At Wallasey, over the Mersey from Liverpool, some boys had run through a gap – a path down to the beach – to go swimming when one of them felt something hard under his toes. It turned out to be a golden guinea, and soon many more were uncovered. This was in 1847, and by 1859 the spot was well known as Guinea Gap. ![]()
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Ancient treasures were often buried in groups, one pot or bag at a time. This would explain the early name of Silverdale in Lancashire, Selredal in 1199. Part of a hoard could well have been unearthed here in the tenth or eleventh century, for another came to light in 2011: this was concealed in about 905.![]()
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Hord was the Old English term for treasure. The boundary clauses of Anglo-Saxon charters take us to hord hlince ufeweardum ‘to the top part of the hoard linchet’ at Welford (Berkshire, in 949); on hord dene ‘to the hoard valley’ at Hawkesbury (Gloucestershire, in 972); and on hord burh ‘to the hoard hillfort’ at Manaton (Devon, eleventh century). ![]()
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The charters never refer to discoveries of gold, and this word is very rare even in later names inspired by the discovery of precious things. Certainly there are many names beginning Gold– but some of these seem to contain golde ‘marigold’, while others may refer to bright sandy features or are otherwise metaphorical. ![]()
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It seems as if poor Adam of Dunstable was the victim of a mistaken etymology.![]()
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To find out more, see: www.snsbi.org.uk/exploring-names/place-names/golden-hopes/![]()
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Photo © portableantiquities, cc-by-sa 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Call for papers! Our autumn meeting will be held on Saturday 14 November from 1000 to 1630 at the University of Sheffield and online. ![]()
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The theme is 'Names and Power'. Abstracts are invited from across the broad field of name studies and related disciplines by 4 September 2026.![]()
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For more information, see www.snsbi.org.uk/meeting/2026-autumn-meeting-university-of-sheffield/