Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Kemestan 1060 KCD809 14th Abbr 1199

• Cæmbestun EdwConf Rams c.1350

• Cæmbestune 1077 ChronRams 17th

• Camestone 1086 DB 1200 FF

• Canbestuna 1124–8 ScottHistRevxiv.372

• Kembeston 1176 P 1237 Cl 1254 Orig 1291 Tax 1325 Ipm 1402 BHRSi.102

• Kemeston 1189 P 1199 FF 1202 1220 LS 1237 Cl 1247,1276 Ass 1284 FA 1287 1313 Cl 1332 Pat

• Kamistuna 1195 P

• Camestun 1195 P

• Chemiston 1199 P

• Cemeston 1199 Cur

• Cambesdon, Kimbeston 1201 Cur

• Cambeston 1236 FF

• Kemston 1236 FF 1240 Cl 1247,1276 Ass 1282 Cl 1316 FA 1334 1346 FA 1349 Ipm

• Kembestun 1237 Cl 1253 BM

• Kemestun 1241 Cl

• Kemyston 1242 Fees868

• Kempston 1247 Ass 1290,1355 Ipm

• Kempeston 1276 Ass 1306 Cl

• Kemmeston 1276 Ass

• Camston 1328 Pat

• Cameston 1332 Pat

Etymology

Upon this name Professor Ekwall has contributed the following note:

The place is situated at a sharp bend of the Ouse. This suggests that the first element may be connected with British *cambo - (Welsh  cam ) 'crooked.' There is in Wales a common place-name, which appears in slightly varying forms, as Kemeys (two on the Usk), Cemmaes (on Cemmaes Bay, Anglesey), Cemais (on the Dysynni) etc. The names in early sources appear as Cemeis , Kemeis etc. The places in question are situated on bays or at bends of a stream. No doubt the name Cemeis is in reality an old common noun meaning a bay or a bend of a river, and cognate or identical with Ir  camus , Gael  camas 'a bay' (see Owen's Pembrokeshire , i. 435). The same name is found in Cambois (Nb), Cams (Ha), IPN 26. The exact history of Cemeis offers some obscure points, but the word is evidently a derivative of *cambo - 'crooked.' It presumably represents a form with an original i or j after the s , which owing to epenthesis came to form a diphthong with the vowel of the preceding syllable and which caused umlaut of the a of the first, that is an OWelsh  *Cembes with palatalised s , later *Cembeis , Cemeis . At the time of the Saxon invasion the name would have its b left; we may compare Cam Beck (Cu), earlier Camboc , also a derivative of *cambo - 'crooked.' The suggestion may be ventured that the bend in the Ouse on which Kempston stands, or a place near it had a pre-English name *Cembes or the like and that from it was formed Kempston by the addition of tūn , just as Gloucester, Dorchester (O) were formed by the addition of ceaster to the British name.Some uncertainty prevails as to the relation between the um- lauted form in Kempston and the non-umlauted one in Cambois, Cams, and between the variant forms of Kempston (æ , a , e ).Cambois, Cams may have been adopted earlier than Cembes in Kempston, before the British umlaut had operated. If so, we may assume that for the OW e in Cembes was substituted the umlaut of OE a before nasals, which appears in OE variously as æ and e . Both developments are recorded in Beds. But the first element of Kempston may have been adopted before British umlaut had taken place; if so, we must assume that an OE  *Cambis was substituted for the British form and this became OE  Cæmbes , Cembes by Old English umlaut.