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.

Nappa

Major Settlement in the Parish of Gisburn

Historical Forms

  • Napars 1086 DB
  • Nappai, Nappay(e), Nappey 1182–5 YCh199 1226 FF 1285 KI 1649 Raist
  • Naphay 1226 Ebor

Etymology

This name and Nappa YN 262 are of identical origin. Ekwall has proposed for these and Napton Wa 140 OE  hnæpp 'bowl' used in a transferred sense of a hill resembling an inverted bowl; Napton (which is on a prominent hill) might however be from OE  cnæpp 'hill-top'; since Nappa is by the R. Ribble and the YN Nappa on the bank of the R. Ure, hnæpp is probably used in some such sense as 'bowl-shaped hollow'. v. (ge)hæg 'enclosure'.

Places in the same Parish

Other OS name

Early-attested site