Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Ailewic c.1150 YCh650

• Ellewic c.1150 Guis c.1174×89 FPD c.1190(p),1196×1215(p) Spec c.1200 GD 1211(p),1214(p) Pipe c.1230 FPD c.1240 Finc c.1240(p),c.1250(p) Spec a.1300 GD c.1300 Spec

• Ellevic 1198×1204 GD

• ellewic 1230×50 Spec

• Ellewick' 1239 EP 1312 RPD

• Ellewych' c.1240 Spec 15th

• Ellewyc c.1260 Elemos

• Ellewik c.1230 Spec 1304 Bek

• Ellewyk' 1287 Pont 1312,1314 RPD

• Ellewyk 1310 Bek 1440×1 IPM

• Elewik 1328 Ct

• Elewike c.1260×90 Spec

• Elwice 1242×3 Ass

• Elwyk' c.1250 Spec 1313 RPD

• Elwyke 1273×90 Spec 1539 IPM

• Elwik' 1273×90 Spec

• Elwik 1438×9 Vis

• Elwike 1549 IPM 1558 Wills

• Elwycke 1558 ib

• Elweke alias Elwycke 1564 IPM

• Elwicke 1609,1620,1622 IPM 1717 Hud 1724,1740,1750,1751 Lond

• Elwick 1717,1728 Hud

• Ellwik 1325 Ct

• Elwicke 1638,1684,1693 CC

• (the p'ish of) Elwick 1653 Salvin 1720 DD 1733–4 Eldon 1736 DX249/1 1824 Salvin 1839 TA

Etymology

P.ns. with a run of sps in Elle - are ambiguous as between pers.n. Ella and OE  ellern 'an elder-tree'. In the absence of any sps with -n - as in Elwicks, PNYW 56, Eleuuic 1086, Ellewic (k ), Ellewyc , Ellewik 1173–1361, Elnewic , Elnewik , Elnewyc 12th–1535, this is probably 'Ella's dairy-farm', OE  pers.n. Ella + wīc , as Elwick, Northumberland NU 1136, Ellewich c.1150, Ellewic 1203, Elwyk 1296 (NbDu 75), v. Ælla Redin 59. The earliest sp, Ailewic c.1150, points to a form Ægla but there is no native element Ægel -, Egel - in OE (PNDb 104). This is probably, therefore, a back-spelling due to the AN  monophthongisation of ai > e (Zachrisson §§108, 110, Pope §§1157–8, 1223).