Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Sualun (sic) 1086 DB

• Svalun (sic) 1086 ib

• Sualwa c.1115 LS

• Sualua, Svalue 1159–81 NCot e13

• Sualue 1200–10 RAix lHy3 NCot

• Sualwe 1196–1203 RAiv 1287 Ipm

• Swalue a1155,eHy2,lHy2,e12(e13) NCot 1212 Fees 1288,1292,1298 Ipm 1428 FA

• Swalua a1180 NCot e13

• Swalwe 1163 RAi 1196–1203,c.1200(p) 1272 Ass 1281 QW 1327 SR

• Sualewa 1143–47 Dane

• Sualewe 1175 ChancR 1188,1190 P 1206 P 1218 Ass 1230 Welles

• Swalew' 1218 Ass

• Swalewe 1196 ChancR 1203 P 1205 ChancR 1210–12 RBE 1211 P 1211–12 RBE 1218 Ass 1219 FF 1227 Ch 1231 Cl 1240 FF 1242–43 Fees 1361 Cl

• Sualowe 1212 Fees

• Swalowe 1303,1330 FA 1340,1359 Ipm 1360 Pat 1372 Misc 1375 Ipm 1375 Cl 1379 Pat 1385 Peace 1388 FF 1393 Pat 1531 Foster

• Swalow 1346 FA 1535 VEiv

• Swalou 1332 SR 1338 Misc 1339 Fine

• Sualu 1275,1276 RH 1281 Ipm c.1300 RAiii 1321 Misc 1321 Cl

• Swallowe 1369 AD 1370 AD 1373 Peace 1499 HMCRep 1526 Sub 1543 LPxviii 1547,1552 Pat 1576 LER 1576 Saxton

• Swallow 1610 Speed 1658 Foster 1680 PT

Etymology

Swallow is a very difficult name, for which no certain meaning can be suggested. Ekwall, DEPN s.n., suggests that it is “very likely an old river-name identical with Swale”. He takes the latter, DEPN s.n., “to be related to swallow (the bird), belonging to the root svel - 'to move, plash', … The meaning of the name seems to be 'whirling, rushing river'”. In his discussion of the R. Swale, RN 384–85, he points out that Swallow “is not on a stream, but in a well-defined valley, where a stream may be supposed to have run”. In fact, a stream rises from an underground source and flows in an easterly direction, from a pond in the Rectory grounds, to the west of Swallow and disappears again immediately to the north-east. This must be the stream which gave its name to the place. Ekwall takes the base of the name to be *Swalwe a weak fem. noun, the exact meaning of which “cannot be established”, but which he suggests may have meant 'whirling, rushing, flowing'. The stream at Swallow, however, can hardly be described as whirling or rushing, but it does seem very likely that OE  *swalwe is the source of Swallow. Smith, EPNE s.v. *swalwe2, accepts that this word “may be the source of the r.ns.Swale and Swallow” and suggests a meaning 'a whirlpool, rushing water', which again clearly cannot be the sense required here.Ekwall, RN 384–65, compares the English Swale, Swallow etc. with the German river-names Schwalb in Franconia (Swalawa c.802) and Schwale in Holstein (Suale 12th). Dr Insley draws attention to the fact that Hans Krahe, Unsere altesten Flussnamen , Wiesbaden 1964, 26, links the name Schwale to OHG , MHG  swal 'a watercourse'. More recently, however, the name has been examined by Wolfgang Laur, Historisches Ortsnamenlexikon von Schleswig -Holstein , 2nd ed., Neumunster, 1992, s.v. Laur points out that there is also a Lithuanian river-name Swale , which has been linked to an Indo-European root *swel - with the sense 'burn'. He considers that the sense 'shine' might also be applicable and that the root can have the sense 'cool', cf. ODan , Modern Danish sval 'cool'. Laur suggests that the Holstein r.n. Schwale is pre-Germanic and belongs to the context of the 'Old European hydronomy', that is to an archaic phase of undifferentiated Indo-European. Dr Insley rightly considers that this explanation is also valid for the English Swale, Swallow, etc. and suggests that Swallow derives its name from an archaic Old European r.n. based on the Indo-European root *swel - in the sense 'shine', the Germanic base of which would be *swalwōn fem. This is the most plausible explanation of the etymology of Swallow which can be made with our present state of knowledge.