Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Bladestone 1086 DB

• Bladeston' 1227 Fees

• Blatheston' 1254 Val c.1291 Tax

• Blacheston 1302 Ipm

• Blathiston 1254 Val

• Blathyston' 13 Deed

• Blatherston' 1254 Val

• Blathston 1344 Nichols

• Blauestone 1086 DB

• Blastone 1086 DB 1224 RHug 13 Peake 1302 Ipm

• Blastona 1224 RHug

• Blaston 1190,1191,1192 P 1465 Wyg 1478 Peake 1526 et freq

• Blastun' e.13 1427 Pap

• Blaeston' 1165,1166 P 1174 1423 Rut 1473 Peake

• Blaestona 1167,1168,1169,1173 P

• Blayston 1507 Pat 1509 LP 1537 MinAccts 1557 Pat

• Blason 1594 Fine 1610 Speed 1611 LML

• Bladestone 1086 DB

Etymology

Possibly 'Blað's village, estate', v. tūn . Ekwall DEPN suggests for the specific an unrecorded OE  masc. pers.n. Blēað , a by-name formed from OE  blēað 'gentle, timid, sluggish' and showing early shortening of ēa . Fellows-Jensen SSNEM 188 rejects this since she believes that shortening of ēa in a stressed syllable would have been hardly likely by the compilation of the Domesday Survey. She tentatively suggests, rather, the Scand  appellative blað 'a leaf, a blade', probably used as a byname Blað . Watts CDEPN, following Fellows-Jensen, interprets the place-name as an OE Scand hybrid meaning 'Blath's estate'. An unrecorded Blað as a by-name is likely to be early and to signify 'a blade' in its sense 'the blade of a weapon' (cf. ON knifs -blað 'blade of a knife'). As with nearby Slawston, the place-name may record appropriation by a warrior from the Viking army which disbanded in the region in 877 rather than represent a later manorial creation.

Note the typical later 16th- and 17th-cent. Leics. loss of t from the group -ston in the Blason spellings, while the d of Bladestone 1086 DB clearly represents th ð .