Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Barneto 1064–77 Gesta 14th

• Barnet t.Ric1 Ch 1301 FF 1197,1200

• Est Barnet c.1275 Gesta

• Barnat 1219 Pap

• La Barnette 1248 Ass 1257 FF

• Barnete 1290–1301 Gesta

• Barneth c.1275 ib

• Estbarnet 1294 SR

• Westbarnet 1449 Pat

• la Barnet Staple 1326–35 Gesta

• The Barnet 1398 Cl

• West Barnet al. West Chepynge Barnet 1558 Ipm

• Bernet 1196 P

• La Bernete 1230 Bracton

• La Bernette 1275 FF 1278 QW

• Bernat 1307 SR

• Chepyng Barnet 1329 FF

• Chepinbarnet 1347 Gesta

• Chippen Barnett 1648 Cass

• Chipping Barnet al. High Barnet 1628 Recov

Etymology

'Place cleared by burning,' v. bærnet . There are three Barnets, East, Friern and High (or Chipping). At a time when the boundary between Hertfordshire and Middlesex was still undetermined, East and High Barnet were included in the former county because they were possessions of the Abbey of St Albans (v. supra 69). Friern Barnet was left in Middlesex because it belonged to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem. It is very unlikely that these are three independent place-names. All this area was in early, and in fact up to medieval times, dense forest, and the name probably referred originally to some large forest area cleared by burning. None of the three places are mentioned in DB nor in the earliest St Albans records, and it may well be that the places did not exist, at least as inhabited districts, before the late 11th or 12th century. Chipping from the cieping or market. Staple is probably the word staple sb (NED) used of a town with certain special trading rights, presumably those of the cieping here.