Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Thambord (sic for Thauibord, Thanibord or Thaulbord) c.1200 NWm

• Thannellbord 1339 ShpDd

• Taylleborth 1357 ShpDd

• Taylebord 1384 Lowth

• Tayleforde (sic) 1517 ib

• Taleburth 1540 DRH

• Talborth 1606 PR

• Taleboroughe 1547 MinAcct

• Taleburgh 1612 NB

• Taylbart 1589–1597 PR

• Talebart 1665 ib

• Tail(e)bothe 1593,1594 ShpPn

• Talberthe 1604 PR

• Taylebert 1625 FF

• Tailbert 1823 M

Etymology

The origin of this name is obscure, as Ekwall (ScandsCelts 20) has noted. The two earliest forms, which it is difficult to be certain about, could formally represent an OE  *tæfl -bord (cf. ME tævel -bred in Laʒamon's Brut ) or ON  tafl -borð 'table-board, dice- or chessboard'. The latter occurs often in Scandinavian p.ns., as in Swed Tavlebordet (Ortnamnen i Göteborgs och Bohus län (Göteborg 1932), iii, 270, etc.), Dan  Tavlbord (DaSn 9, Viborg amts stednavne (Copenhagen 1948), 226, 248), Faroese Talvborð (Matras, FærN 284), etc.; cf. also Swed p.ns. Tavla and Tavlan (Ortnamn i Hallands län (Uppsala 1948), 92–3, Folke Hedblom, Gästriklands äldre bebyggelsenamn (Uppsala 1958), 89, 192). The exact topographical meaning of tafl -borð and tafl in these p.ns. is not certain, but generally they are assumed to describe something resembling a dice-board, usually a rectangular plot of land, perhaps a rectangular flat top of a hill or the like. To some extent this usage is paralleled by ME  cheker 'chequer, chess-board' (cf. EPN i, 92, Chequer Field YW ii, 80, etc.). The name may be repeated in Tailber (i, 48supra ).The variation in the spellings of Tailbert points to an early loss of significance and the substitution (after loss of preconsonantal -f -) of forms like tail , etc.