Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Rerercros Hy2 Ch 1348

• (la) Rerecrosse c.1275 StBees 1360 Pat 1577 Harrison

• Reir croiz de Staynmore c.1280 Weth

• le Redecros super Steynmor 1314 CWiii,318

• Reare crosse 1687 BdyR

Etymology

Rey Cross, Rerercros Hy 2 (1348) Ch, (la ) Rerecrosse c. 1275 StBees, 1360 Pat, 1577 Harrison, Reir croiz de Staynmore c. 1280 Weth, le Redecros super Steynmor 1314 CW iii, 318, Reare crosse 1687BdyR .This was a boundary cross and it was just in YN; it has been described by W. G. Collingwood in CW xxvii, 1–10 (cf. also YN xlvi, 305).The name, as Ekwall suggested, is from ON  hreyrr 'cairn'. The Swedish equivalent rör is used of 'a boundary mark' (HellquistSvEO 875), esp. in the phrase ra och rör (Söderwall ii, 291); in this phrase ra is equivalent to ON  rá2 'land-mark, boundary' and may be the source of the form in Rey Cross, though it is possible that the final -r in Rere - was lost by dissimilation in the compound, v. cros 'cross'.