Lattenbury Hill
Early-attested site in the Parish of Godmanchester
Historical Forms
- Lodona beorg 1012 ProcSocAnt 12th
Etymology
Professor Ekwall has communicated the following note upon the name:
The OE Lodona looks like a gen. pl. and it might be a tribal or folk-name. But as in this charter OE lacu appears twice in the dat. as laca , it is admissible to take Lodona to be the gen. of a Lodon f., which would normally have been Lodone . In either case it is tempting to compare the name with the river-name Loddon (Berks), Loddon (Nf) (probably an original river-name too), and Lothian (Sc). All no doubt belong to Brit *lutā , 'mud.'Early forms of Lothian show a good deal of resemblance to Lodona , as Lodoneum 1098, Lodonia 1127 (see Förster, Engl St lvi 228 ff.). It is hardly worth while speculating upon the exact British ground-form of Lodona , if this is correct. Presumably the district round Huntingdon had a British name derived from *lutā , 'mud,' and the name meant 'the fen-country.' Such a name would suit the locality very well indeed. We may thus perhaps assume that Lodon was an OE name of the Hunts district, a name adopted from their Celtic predecessors, and that Lattenbury is 'the hill in the Lodon district.' If, on the other hand, Lodona is a gen. pl., it may belong to a folk-name meaning 'the Lodon people.'