English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Stockwood

Early-attested site in the Parish of Luton

Historical Forms

  • Wypereleya Hy2 Ch 1285
  • Wyperley 1156 Dugdvi.11 1393 IpmR
  • Whip(er)ly Eliz ChancP
  • Stockwood al. Wyperley 1640 BHRSv.110

Etymology

Professor Zachrisson suggests that the first element in this name may be the whippultre (v.l. whip (p )il , wypul -) in Chaucer's list of trees in the Knight 's Tale (2065). That is usually taken to be the cornel-tree. For such a reduction we may compare Apperley (Nb) from æppeltreo and possibly Mapperley (Db) from mapeltreo . This would fit well with the suffix leah .