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.

Wandales

Early-attested site in the Parish of Great Edstone

Historical Forms

  • Sanwandeiles 1333 Riev

Etymology

Lindkvist (PN Scand Origin 35, n. 2) notes the survival in NE of wandale 'a share of the large open arable land of a township' (cf. EDD s.v.) and the existence of ODan  wang in the special sense of 'cultivated field in which all the villagers hold a share.' From this evidence Lindkvist suggests that the first element of wandale is ON  vangr . There are objections to this: (1) none of the spellings of wandale (either in the YNR or frequent examples elsewhere) ever exhibits a form wangdale , and the loss of -g -in that position is unlikely as it is usually preserved in such names as Langdale, etc.; (2) there is a form wanddayles (v. Wandale, LangE 157infra ) which points to an original first element wand . ON v ndr 'a twig' etc. is used in the compound vand-balkr to denote 'a wall of wands'; the meaning of wandale , therefore, is probably 'a share of the common field fenced off with wands or stakes.' The final element of wandale is either OE  dal 'share' or ON  deill. The distinguishing element in this name is sand .

Places in the same Parish

Early-attested site

Major Settlement