Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• (capud de) Crumbok 1190 Furn 1379 PT

• Crumbock 1356 Furn

• Cromboc, Crombok 1190 Furn 1383 MinAcct

• Crumbak 1379 PT

• Croumboc, Croumbok 1220,1401 Furn

• Crommock 1596 PRClp

• Cromo(c)ke 1599 FF 1642 PRClp

Etymology

Crummack, (capud de ) Crumbok 1190 Furn, 1379 PT, Crumbock 1356 Furn, Cromboc , Crombok 1190 Furn, 1383MinAcct , Crumbak 1379 PT, Croumboc , Croumbok 1220, 1401 Furn, Crommock 1596 PRClp, Cromo (c )ke 1599 FF, 1642 PRClp. This would appear to be a common type of name, as it occurs in Crummock Holme iii, 54, Cromack Close iii, 239, Crumack iii, 264, Cromoke iv, 208, Crummock Croftes vi, 147 and Crummack vi, 224supra . None of the latter examples has spellings older than the seventeenth century and all are minor p.ns. or f.ns. of which the topographical background is generally wanting; in the compounded examples we may have a surname Crummack derived from the present name or from a ME  local name Crumb-oke 'crooked oak-tree' (v. crumb , āc ).Crummack itself is the name of a farm which lies below Hammer Knot high on the steep scarred slope of a twisting hill called Long Scar. The early forms of the name rule out a derivation from ME  crumb-ake 'crooked oak-tree', and we must therefore take it as a Brit  name *crumbāco - 'the crooked one' (v. crumbo- and the adj. suffix -āco-), in this case 'the crooked hill'. In Crummock Beck (Cu 10, RN 108–9), a name of similar origin, it describes a twisting river, as it may do in some of the other YW examples like Crummock Holme iii, 54. The Brit  suffix -āco was adjectival in function and names formed with it could apply to any topographical feature which had the characteristic appropriate to the first el. Thus, in Cammock 151supra , which is a similar formation with -āco -, the name refers to a hill, whilst another example of the same name, Cam Beck (Cu 7, RN 65), denotes a stream.