Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 315

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 315

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/315

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on placenames which use "river" and "tree" in them.

"Tree" is a common element in English place-names. It appears in a variety of forms, as in the towns Treborough, Treeton, Treyford, Trimdon, and Trowbridge. It's also found in connection with descriptive words (Fairtree, Greytree), words denoting a number (Aintree, Manningtree from "ain" or one and "manig" or "many), and names or titles for people (Bishopstrow, Bartestre). (1)

"River" is not generally found as an element in English place-names. It's a French word which wasn't used in English until after the Norman Conquest. "river" is used as a descriptive word (so that we have "River Thames," "Avon River," and so on) but there are no examples of places which are called "Thamesriver" or "Avonriver." We did find one example of a town called "River," (2), but based on our knowledge of historical names, this doesn't mean that there would likely be a "Treeriver."

There are many Old English words for bodies of water, including "broc," "ri{dh}," "stream," "w{ae}ter," and "lacu." It would be possible to use a place-name which includes one of these words instead of "river."

We can suggest a couple of specific ideas:

The only actual name we found which comes close to your meaning is "Trowelle," which is translated as "tree stream." (2)

Many towns are followed by the designation "-on-<river name>" (for example, "Stratford-on-Avon." You could pick a "tree name" (such as "Treeton" or "Manningtree") and follow it with the name of a river. This would give you references to trees and a river as well.

Arval D'Espas Nord, Talan Gwynek, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Walraven van Nijmege contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Smith, A.H. "English Place-Name Elements"

(2) Ekwall, E. "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names."