Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Gniptone 1086 DB

• Gnipton' c.1130 LeicSurv 12 BelCartB e.15 Abbr 1206 Rut 1366,1369

• Gniptona l.12 1228 ib

• Gniptun' a.1166 BelCartB e.15 GarCart l.12 BHosp l.12

• Gniptune c.1235 Laz 1407

• Gniptuna Hy1 Ch 1333 BelCartB Hy2 e.15

• Gnypton' e.13 BelCartA e.14 BelCartB c.1207 RGros e.15 Rut 1238 Misc 1252 WoCart 1252 Rut 1449 Wyg 1451 Rut 1489 1500,1511

• Gnypton' iuxta Beauuer 1316 WoCart 1449

• Gnippeton' 12 BelCartB e.15 c.1250 e.15 ib

• Gnipeton' e.Hy3 Rut 1225 Cur

• Cnipetone 1086 DB 1235×53 Dugd

• Knipton' 1208,1229 Pat l.Hy3 Rut

• Knipton 1487 Cl 1576 Saxton 1606 LML

• Kniptona 1156 Ch 1318 Dugd Hy2

• Kniptun 1236 Fees

• Knypton' 1243 Cur 1277 Cl 1449 WoCart 1454 Rut 1530 1553 Pat 1576 LibCl 1577 LEpis

• Knypeton 1539 Deed

Etymology

'The farmstead, village below the steep hillside', v. gnípa , tūn , cf. Knipe, We 2191 and Gnipe Howe, YN 122. Knipton lies in a narrow valley with hills rising steeply on each side. Pagan Anglo-Saxon burials here suggest that an earlier OE name for the site was supplanted after the Scand settlements.