Kimble (Great and Little)
Major Settlement in the Parish of Great and Little Kimble
Historical Forms
- Cynebellinga gemære 903 BCS603
- Chenebelle, Chenebelle Parva 1086 DB
- Kinebelle 1196 FF(P)
- Kenebelle 1197 Fines 1204 Cur
- Magna Kynebell c.1218 WellsL
- Kymbell 1369 Cl
- Kymble 1408 Pat
- Kembel(l) 1441,1451 Pat
- Kumbell 1446 ADi
- Kymbell 1485 Ipm 1509 LP
- Kymball al. Kembyll 1510 LP
Etymology
This is a name with regard to which no certainty can be attained. Professor Ekwall suggests that the second element may be an OE bell (e ), meaning 'hill,' a word the existence of which we have good reasons for assuming. It is found as bell in modern dialects (cf. Yeavering Bell in Nb) and the cognate
11–2 bjalli is common as a hill-name in Norway and Iceland. The first element he would take to be OE cyne , 'royal.' There is a very conspicuous hill at Kimble which must undoubtedly have impressed itself on the minds of the first settlers in the neighbourhood and they might well have distinguished it from its neighbours as the 'royal' hill, or it may be that early in the history of the settlement it came, by reason of some royal burial or other event, to earn the epithet 'royal' in more direct fashion.For a compound of this type we may compare Kingston-on- Soar (Nt), DBChinestan , which must be from OE cyne -stān .For the variant vowel, v. Introd. xxiv.