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.

Yapham

Major Settlement in the Parish of Pocklington

Historical Forms

  • Iapun 1086 DB
  • Iapum 1234 Ch 1252 FF 1235
  • Yapun 1138 RegAlb 1296 Hom
  • Yapum 1150–61 YCh442 1208 FF 1230 Ebor 1350 Ipm
  • Yappum c.1270 YI
  • Yaphum 1293 QW
  • Yapom 1280 YI 1316 NomVill
  • Yapoun 1359 Ipm
  • Yapon 1372 FF
  • Japun 1200 Abbr, Cur, FF
  • Japum t.Ric1 Ch 1308 FF 1202 Ass 1219 FF 1373
  • Jabum 1231 Ass
  • Yapam 1276 RH 1530 FF 1546 YChant
  • Yapham 1451 Test 1565 FF
  • Yapeham 1550 FF
  • Yapecroft 1316 YD

Etymology

OE  gēap is used in a variety of senses, amongst others 'open, wide, lofty, steep, deep, bent, crooked,' and there is some evidence for its use in place-names, as in OE  on geapan garan BCS 624 (cf. Middendorff 59) and in Yapham (PN D 79). In both these names it seems to be used adjectivally, but in Yapham, which is from the OE  dat. plur. gēapum , it is used as a substantive. The village of Yapham stands high up on the slope of a fairly steep hill and we must interpret the name as 'at the steep places.' A Lincolnshire dialect word yaup (from OE  geāp with stress-shifting as in Yapham) is used of 'a slope of land.' There was in Yapham parish a field called Yapecroft 1316 YD.

Places in the same Parish