Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Denet 1202–8 Ass 1231,1252 FF 1247,1251 Ch

• Deneth 1279–81 QW

• Dent(e) 1278 Kend 1303 KF 1307 YI 1660 Dep

• Dent(e) in Lonesdale 1348 BM

• Dent(e) towne 1577 Holinshed 1685 PR

• foote of Dente 1626 ib

Etymology

This p.n. has been associated with Dent (Cu 358) by Ekwall who derives them both from a British word related to OIr  dind 'a hill'.This may well be correct for the Cumberland Dent which has a single early spelling mons Dinet c. 1200, and might well account for the regular early form Denet (h ) for the YW name; presumably the Brit  form would be something like *Dindeto - or Dindētiō , which, according to Professor Jackson, would have become *Dinnéd or Dinn  d by the second half of the sixth century, the unstressed -i - being represented by e - in OE (cf. Jackson § 204 A. 1). But there is no evidence of such a word in British. The name of the R. Dee is a late back-formation from Dent, but names like Dent Head and the lost Dents foot (1613 PRSed, also foote of Dente 1626 ib) near the junction of the Dee and the Rawthey rather suggest that Dent itself was an old river-name.