Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Ateclive 1086 DB

• Atterclive 1296 Y

• Atterclif(f), Atterclyff(e) 1361 1366 Hlm 1383 Ipm 1692 Hall

• Attreclyf 1328 Banco

• Aterclyff 1440 SheffMan

Etymology

Attercliffe is now usually taken to be from OE  æt þǣm clife '(place) at the cliff', with the substitution of the ME  fem. form atter (OE  æt þǣre ) for atte (n ); such a use of the fem. def.art. with a masc. noun could only happen when grammatical gender was dying out. In the northern and north midland area this happened in very early ME  at the latest; there appears to be no evidence at all in those parts for a fem. def.art. þer (e ) in the appropriate period. A further difficulty is that Attercliffe would be a very rare, if not unique, case of the preservation of æt in a p.n. in the north. Goodall's proposal of an ODan  pers.n. Attær (more correctly Ater ) is unlikely because that name is in fact a loan from OG  Atheri (cf. DaGN s.n.). In this p.n. we have without doubt a shortened form of OE  Æþelrēd or Ēadrēd ; and parallels to the development can be found in Atterton K, OE  Eadredestun (DEPN) and then regularly Etreton (a ), Attreton , Atterton (K 563), and in Atterton Lei, possibly OE  Æþeredesdun BCS 1283, later Attreton , Atterton . On the absence of the gen. inflection v. EPN i, 158. 'Æþelred's or Eadred's cliff', v. clif . The 'cliff' is the rising ground on the east side of the Don.