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.

Whole Pippin

Early-attested site in the Parish of Whicham

Historical Forms

  • Whirleppin 1646 LowtherW
  • Whirnepepin 1646 PR
  • Whinnepepin 1651 ib
  • Whirlepippen 1659 ib
  • Whorlepepin 1719 ib

Etymology

The second element is English pipkin , of doubtful origin, found in dialect as pippen , pippin , 'a round and deep earthenware pan.' Like Whirlepott (supra 281), the name evidently means a pot-hole in a stream. Cf. a pool in the (East Lothian) Tyne called “Saint Baldred's Whirl” (Ritchie, St Baldred 124). v. EDDs. v. whirl sb.