Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Godmundcestre 1086 DB 1173 P

• Gutmuncetre 1146–54 BM

• Gudmencestre c.1150 HarlCh83B6

• Gudmundcestria 1168 P 1177 P 1286 Ch

• Gum(m)uncestre 1175,1177 P

• Gumencestre 1189 ChR

• Guncestre 1189 ChR 1362 Cl 1526 LS

• Gumcestria 1194 BM

• Gumecestre 1197–8 P 1217 Pat 1219 FF 1227 Ass 1236 Ch 1245 For 1327 SR 1361,1381 Cl 1392 Ch 1467 BM

• Gommecestre 1267 Ch

• Gomecestria 1285 BM 1334 Ipm

• Gummecestre 13th ADiii 1308 Cl 1324 Fine

• Gurmund(es)cestre 1302 Orig 1305 Cl

• Gormecestre 1316 FA

• Gormancestre 1322 Inqaqd

• Gomecestre 1334 Ipm

• Gunnecestre 1353 Orig

• Gurmecestre 1361 Fine

• Godmechestre 1380 Cl

• Gurminchestre 1381 Cl

• Gumchestre c.1460 Linc

• Gurmencestre 1485 FA

• Gumcestre, Gumestre, Godmonchestre 1513 LP

• Gumecestur 1521 FF

• Gumycestre 1529 FF

• Godmanchester 1535 VE

• Godmanchester al. Gunecestre 1597 FF

Etymology

The 'chester' (v. ceaster ) recorded here is the Roman station south of Ouse, generally and probably, though not quite certainly, identified with the Durolipons of the Antonine Itinerary.The first element in the name is either Guðmund or Godmund , the latter found also in Goodmanham (Y) and Gumley (Lei). In each of these names, as in Godmanchester, later forms occur with a spelling Guth - or Gut -, and in Gumley and Goodmanham, if derivation from Godmund were not proved by early OE  spellings, it would be uncertain whether Godmund or Gūðmund lay behind the medieval forms. The best explanation of these Guth -, Gum - forms is that the change of o to u results from anticipation of the u of the second element of the compound Godmund .

It is clear that in the Gurm - forms we have the results of a pseudo-historical tradition. William of Malmesbury in his Gesta Regum (ch. 121) says that the Danish king Guthrum (Alfred's adversary) was called in English Gurmundus . From the resemblance of Gurmund to Gudmund a tradition that Guthrum founded Godmanchester must have arisen at least as early as the 14th cent., though the first reference to it is in Camden's Britannia 384 (1594 ed.), 'sed antiquito hoc sub Saxonibus nomine, a Gormone Dano Gormoncester vocari cepit.'