Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Huslehe 1185 Facs

• Huseley 1489 ChRR

• Huxelehe 1202–29 BW

• Huxeleg(h) 1260 Court 1267 1285 ChRR 1363

• Huxileg' 1329 AD

• Huxleg' 1260 Court

• Huxley 1271–4 Chest

• Huxley Greens 1671 Sheaf

• Huxley Hall 1724 NotCestr

• Lower Huxley Hall 1819 Orm2

• Huxley Gorse, Huxley Green & Huxley Mill, Huxley Lower Mill, The Lanes 1831 Bry

• Huxley Lane, Higher Hall & Lower Hall 1842 OS

• Hoxeleg' 1260 Court 1279 Chest 1306 Chol

• Hoxel' 1279 Chest

• Hoxlegh 1279 Orm2

• Hoxl' 1265–76 Chest

• Hoxlegh 1313 MidCh

• Houxseleyg' 1274 Chol

• Huxclyve 1281 Court

• Huckysley 1284 Ipm

• Hukele 1301 Pat 1344

• Hokesley 1485 Orm2

Etymology

The final el. is lēah 'a glade', with brycg , gorst , grēne 2 , hall , lane , and myln . Ekwall (DEPN) recognises the unsatisfactory evidence of his material for the first el., and tentatively suggests the OE  pers.n. Hōc (gen.sg. -es ). On formal grounds Barnes1 285 suggests either an OE  pers.n. Huc , or hūc 'a river bend'. At Huxley the R. Gowy turns northward, but the change of direction is not so sudden as to form a remarkable topographical feature. The first el. is probably an OE  pers.n. *Hucc , cf. *Hucca in Hucklow Db 131, Hucknall Db 268. However, the spellings indicate that this p.n. could be from OE  husc , hucs , hux (gen.sg. -es , gen.pl. -a ), ME  hux , 'insult, ignominy, scorn, mockery, scoffing, a taunt' (BT, BTSuppl, NED).It would be of a kind with p.ns. in beadu, bismer , (ge)flit, man- drēam, strūt , þrēap (v. EPN, WRY 7159), in which a human emotional state, activity or response is part of the name. Huxley would mean 'woodland or glade where ignominy is offered or suffered', alluding either to some social activity here, or to some inhospitable feature of the ground which made a mockery of inhabitation or cultivation. Huxley gave name to Southley Brook infra .