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.

Lobb

Early-attested site in the Parish of Braunton

Historical Forms

  • Loba 1086 DB
  • Lobbe 1242 Fees787
  • Lobba 1365 FF
  • Suthlobbe 1463 IpmR

Etymology

The same element occurs in Lobb, Lobhill, Lopwell and Labdon (v. Index), in the personal name atte Lobbe in Beaminster (Do) in 1333 (SR ) and possibly in Lobb (PN O 149). It must, as suggested by Blomé (16), be the word lob in some topographical sense. EDD gives the meaning 'wide extent or surface,' NED associates it with various Teutonic words denoting 'something heavy, clumsy or loosely pendent.' All these places are situated by steep slopes, Lobb itself being at the bottom of a fairly steep hill above the flat sandy waste known as Braunton Burrows.