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.

Starling Dodd, Dodd and Little Dodd

Early-attested site in the Parish of Loweswater

Etymology

The Dod and the other high Dod of Gillefinchor cannot be fixed so nearly, but they may well be identical with the hills called Little Dodd and Dodd, between Starling Dodd and Buttermere. Ekwall (ScandCelts 25) takes the Gille of Gillefinchor to represent the ON  gil , 'ravine', as in Gillecamban (196), Gillegarran (375). The second element is the ON  personal name Finnþórr (recorded in Cu (StB 317)). The c in -finchor is undoubtedly due to the common medieval misreading of t as c . As Professor Ekwall points out, the name is apparently still in use in the corrupt form Gillflinter (Beck).