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.

Evenlode

Major Settlement in the Parish of Evenlode

Historical Forms

  • æt Eu(u)langelade 772 BCS209,210 16th,11th
  • Eowengelad 784 11th ib
  • æt Eowlangelade, to Eowlangelade 969 11th ib
  • Eunelade 777 BCS222 14th KCD912 c.1050 Ass c.1200 1221
  • Eunelode c.1050 KCD1367 c.1200
  • Eownilade 779 BCS229 c.1200
  • Eowniglade c.957 12th ib
  • Eowenland (sic) 964 BCS1135 12th
  • Eunilade 1086 DB c.1086 EveB 1221 Eyre
  • Evenlade 1185 P 1275 Episc
  • Evinlade 1209 Fees
  • Ewenelod(e) 1284 Episc 1291 Tax 1331 Ass
  • Emlade 1378 Hailes1
  • Emlod(e) 1428 AddRoll 1549 Pat 1611 Rec 1723 PR
  • Evenelod 1369 Episc 1712 PR

Etymology

Other spellings are given in Wo 123 (from which county the parish was transferred in 1931). Evenlode is also the name of the river near which the village stands, but that is a back-formation; the old name of the river was Bladen (3 supra ). 'Eowla's water-course or river- crossing', from an OE  pers.n. formed from Eowa and equivalent, as Ekwall notes, to a ContGerm  Avila (cf. Schönfeld 40), and OE  gelād, on the interpretation of which v. EPN ii, 8–9; the lode is doubtless the second eastern channel or cut of the river here. The later Even - is an inversion which could arise when OE  efen 'even' had been assimilated to em - (cf. Phonol. § 34b ).