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.

Sarratt

Major Settlement in the Parish of Sarratt

Historical Forms

  • Syreth 1077–93 Gesta 14th
  • Siret 1166 RBE
  • Syret 12th StAlbansN
  • Sareth 1094 AD 1183–95 Gesta 1262 Ass 1296 SR
  • La Sareth c.1275 Gesta
  • Saret c.1220 ANG 1258 FF 1259 MP 1294 SR 1301 Gesta
  • Sharete 1248 Ass
  • La Sarette, Sarette 1255 1263,1314 FF 1303,1428 FA
  • Sarette by Bovyndon 1315 Pat
  • Sereth, Seret t.Hy2 Dugd c.1200 Miss
  • Serret, Seret t.Ric1 Ch 1301
  • Seret 1237 FF
  • Serrett 1281 ib
  • Sherrat 1529–32 ECP
  • Serreyt 1538 Recov

Etymology

This is a difficult name. Attempts have been made to link it with certain French names (cf. Skeat 64–5) but the evidence for such names, quite apart from their meaning, is very slender and does not in any case help us with the difficult problem of the variant syr -, sar -, ser - forms. Sarratt lies high on the chalk and we may perhaps best link it with OE  sēar , 'dry, withered, barren' which seems to have had in OE  an alternative jo –derivative sīere , probably used substantivally in the not very distant Seer Green (PN Bk 231). From one or other of these adjectives, which were readily confused, an ett -derivative may have been formed giving ME  seret , saret , siret , 'dry place.' Cf. the similar derivatives emnet , þiccett from OE  efn , þicce .

A possible alternative is to take the name as an ett -derivative of OE  sierwan , syrwan , 'to deceive, lie in ambush,' of the same type as OE  bærnet , 'place of burning,' from bærnan , 'to burn.'syrwet would denote 'place of ambush, place for snaring,' and would regularly give late OE  sieret , syret (cf. sirede for sierwede ) and ME  seret , but the sar -forms would in this case be a good deal harder to explain unless we assumed some influence from the word searu , 'trick.'