Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Cocheshalle 1086 DB

• Coggeshall E2 MainwB 1521 Plea 1639 Sheaf

• Cogshall 1383 ChRR

• Cogeshall 1581 Sheaf

• Cogushal 1275 ArlB

• Cogeshale 1317 City

• Cogshul(l) E1 Tab 1666 Orm2

• Kogeshult 1287 Court

• Cogishull, Cogeshull 1289 1295 ChF

• Coggeshull c.1296 Orm2 c.1320 Chol

• Coggeshulle E2 Orm2 1666 Cl 1416

• Coggishil(l) 1305 Lacy 1307 MinAcct

• Coggeshyll 1419 Bark

• Coksell 1511 Chol

Etymology

The first el. is either an OE  *cogg (ME  cogge) 'a cog, a cog-wheel', or an OE  pers.n. Cogg derived from it, cf. Cogshall DEPN. The second el. is hall2 'a slope, a hill' (confused with halh (dat.sg. hale ) 'a nook, a corner of land') and hyll 'a hill'. Spellings in -hull from the latter preponderate but the -hall form persists throughout. If the first el. is the pers.n., Cogshall is 'Cogg's hill'. If it is OE  *cogg , the name is 'hill at a cog', supposing a mill-wheel or some such feature, cf. Cogges O 333, Coggeshall Ess 365. However, Ekwall takes OE  *cogg in a figurative sense as a hill-name, DEPN s.n. Cogges . The material is against derivation from the OE  pers.n. Cocc proposed NRY 121.