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.

Rifton

Early-attested site in the Parish of Stoodleigh

Historical Forms

  • Restona 1086 DB
  • Reft(h)on 1198 FF 1242 Fees760
  • Reveton(e) 1261 Exon 1299 Ipm

Etymology

This is probably from an OE  (ge )rēfantūn , 'reeve's farm,' the place being perhaps so called because it was the residence of a reeve. Cf. Riverton supra 351.