Great Place Names

George Stewart's fun "Names on the Land" has recently been reissued by New York Review Book Classics. (Personally, I pick up every book by this imprint, they have also recently been reissuing works by Platonov, including the haunting Kotlovan.)

Stewart describes thousands of place names, but one list really stood out, names that were not in good taste: Maidenhead, Fryup, Sizergh, Great Snoring, Shitlington, and Ashby de la Zouche.

In his notes Stewart makes no mention as to where exactly lie these places with 'tasteless' names. Time to find out.

Maidenhead - located on the Thames about twenty five miles from London. The name is not in reference to a hymen, but rather from the phrase "Maiden Hyth", new wharf, or even prior to have been called "Mai Dun."

Fryup - britishism for big old plate of fried food - 'fancy a breaky fryup.' Also a small town in Yorkshire. Town name might be from the Norse. "Up" = valley, "Fria" = lady's name. So, "Fria's Valley." Needless to say, but there are a bunch of dales and valleys in Fryup.

Sizergh - I have no idea why Stewart would consider this name in poor taste. All I can find out online is that there is a big castle there.

Great Snoring - usually this is when my ex-wife would elbow me and make me roll over on my side. Hardy har har. There is also a "Little Snoring." Once known as "Snoring Magma." In Saxon it was called Snaringa. The suffix -ing would signify "the place where these people live." Example: Reading = place where the Reads live, or place where Read lived. In Great Snoring there once lived a bloke named Snear.

Shitlington - Also in Yorkshire. If we parse this: -ing = "place where these people live," "-ton" = town, Shit = a man named Shit. Shitlington = Town Where a Man Named Shit Lives. There is also Middle Shitlington (also Shitlington Middle), Shitlington Crags, Shitlington Hall. I'm to lazy to find out what Shit meant in Old English. Also it's funnier this way.

Ashby de la Zouche - Again, I am perplexed as to why Stewart would think this is in bad taste. (Ashby de la Douche, now that is tasteless). Usually just called Ashby these days. "Ashby" = 's ash farm in danish. After the Norman conquest the area was given to the Zouche family, hence the de la Zouche. Many British place names reflect the many numbers of people who have conquered the island: celt,roman, norman, danish, viking, angle, saxon. All so that a thousand years later we can giggle when we hear the names.