English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Wargraves

Early-attested site in the Parish of Bromborough

Historical Forms

  • Wargraves 1877 Orm2ii
  • Wergreaves 1839 TA
  • Wargreaves 1838 TA404

Etymology

Wargraves (109–357831), Wargraves 1877 Orm2 ii 427n., Wergreaves 1839TA , a field supposed the site of the battle of Brunanburh . The antiquity of the name is not known. The Rev. Mr Green, incumbent at Bromborough, who informed Helsby (Orm2), obviously supposed it an old f.n., from ME  werre 'war', and græf 'a grave, a digging'.There is another example of this f.n., Wargreaves 1838TA 404 in Tushingham cum Grindley 49supra . The final el. is grǣfe 'a wood'.The first el. is probably ME  werre (ModEdial. war , cf. ON  verri ) adj., 'worse, the less valuable'. Professor Sørensen points out a Danish parallel in the common Funen p.n.Elved (ON  illviði ) 'bad wood, wood of no value'. The name is not evidence for a battlefield.