Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Meal(e)rigg 1580 NCyWills 1865 OS

Etymology

Mealrigg, Meal (e )rigg 1580 NCyWills, 1865 OS, v. hrycg (hryggr) 'ridge'. Meal - is fairly common as a first el. esp. in NCy p.ns., chiefly hill-names, as in Meal Bank, Mell Fell, Mealebanke , Mealy Syke, Meal howe (i, 136, ii, 105, 135, 150, 176 infra ), Mealo (Cu 288), Meal Hill (YW ii, 244, 309, etc.), Mealy Bank (ib vi, 189).In some cases it may be OE  mǣle 'coloured, variegated' in allusion to the vegetation of heather, bracken, etc. Some may contain ON  melr 'sand-hill', and later 'bent-grass'. Mealrigg (Cu 304) and Methelrig (ii, 146infra ) also show another possibility of a contracted form of ON  meðal 'middle' (OE  middel), which occurs in the ME  prep. i-melle 'between', as in Melbecks (ii, 9infra ). The latter explanation would suit Mealrigg, the farm lying between two hill spurs. Note also Brit  *mēlo (Welsh  moel 'bare hill') in Mell Fell (Cu 212).