Staverton
Major Settlement in the Parish of Staverton
Historical Forms
- stæfertun 944 BCS792
- Staverton(e) 1086 DB 1552 ADv
- Stauereton 1199 FF
- Staureton 1273–81 Ipm
- Stareton 1460–6 ECP
- Starton 1524 Recov
- Starton-on-thehill t.Hy8 LRMB
- Staverton al. Stareton 1587 Recov
- Staverton al. Starton 1702 Poll
Etymology
This name has been dealt with by Ritter (125–6), who rightly associates it with Starton (Wa), Staverton (Gl, W), and a lost Stauertuna (Sf), as shown by their early forms. It should not be associated with Staverton (D), as the full forms of that name (PN D 520) show. The first element may also be found in Stears (Gl), DBStaure , and in DB Staurecote (Sa). Ritter associates it with ODan stafær , 'pole,' a derivative of the common word stav , 'staff.' The distribution of the term in the English place- names just noted shows that in them it is of native English rather than of Scandinavian origin, and must come from a lost OE stæfer . The compound would denote a tun made with, or marked by, a pole or poles, staver is found as a dialect word in English (EDD, NED) with senses 'rung of a ladder,' 'stake for a hedge,' but its distribution in that case suggests that it is the Scandinavian loan-word rather than this Old English word. We have the Scandinavian word in Starbottom (WRY), DBStamphotne , 1268 Pat Staverbotton .