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.

Hescott

Early-attested site in the Parish of Hartland

Historical Forms

  • Hersecote 1167 P
  • Herscote 1333 SR
  • Herscoote, Harscott 1566 DA

Etymology

This name would seem to go with Harescombe and Haresfield, the names of adjacent Gloucestershire parishes of which the DB forms are Harsecome and Hersefeld . (For further forms v. PN Gl 78 and cf. Hersden in Sturry (K), Hersyng ', 1327 and 1333SR .) The most natural explanation of these names is to assume that the places were owned by a man named Hersa , an unrecorded pers. name which would be the exact cognate of the much discussed OScand name Hariso . Cf. Zachrisson in Festskrift til Finnur Jónsson , 316 ff.