Needingworth
Early-attested site in the Parish of Holywell cum Needingworth
Historical Forms
- Neddingewurda 1161,1163 P
- Nithingwurth 1227 Ass
- Nedingewrht 1234 FF
- Nidingw(u)rth 1241 FF 1260 Ass 1268 FF
- Niddingworth 1260 Ass 1287 Ct 1317 ADi 1327 SR 1342 FF c.1350 Rams
- Niddingeworth 13th ADiv
- Nydingworth, Nidingworth 1322 ADi 1337,1417 FF
- Nedyngworth, Nedingworth 1452 FF 1456 ADi 1535 VE
- Needenworth 1662 Fuller 1675 Ogilby
Etymology
Ekwall has provided the solution of this name when (PN in -ing 14) he associates it with Nedging (Sf). The latter is found as Hnyddinge (BCS 1289), and he takes this to be from a lost OE name Hnydda , probably by origin a nickname, allied to English nod , noddle and nuddle (dial.), 'to push.' Needingworth is then 'enclosure of Hnydda's people' (v. worð ). Short y appears quite regularly as short e or i in ME (v. Introd. xxv). The lengthening of the vowel, first clearly shown in the 17th cent., may be purely artificial and due to association with the ordinary word need . If it is a regular development then we must take it that the double consonant dd early came to be regarded as a single d and that i was lengthened, lowered to e , and made tense in the open syllable, but this seems somewhat unlikely. It is interesting to note that the only other known example of this pers. name in place-names is a lost Nidingham (C), so that all the examples of it come from the eastern part of the region settled by Angles.