Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Garthorp c.1130 LeicSurv 1175 Nichols 1199 FF 1206 Ass Hy3 Crox 1535 VE 1550 Pat

• Garthorp iuxta Waltham 1326 Banco 1330 Ass

• Garthorp' 1242,1247 Fees 1265 RGrav Hy3 Crox 1449 WoCart 1535 VE

• Garthorp' iuxta Waltham 1325(1449),1353(1449) WoCart

• Garthorpe 1228 RHug 1264 IpmR 1275 Pat 1574,1580 LEpis

• Gartorp' e.13 Laz 1404 ClR 1219 MHW 1220 Ch 1290 CRCart l.13

• Gartorpa 1220×35 RHug

• Garetorp 1184,1185 P

• Geretorp 1180 P

• Gertorp 1187,1207,1208,1209 ib

• Garsthorp 1274 Cl

• Gardethorp 1416 Nichols

• Garthropp 1530 LWills 1537 MinAccts

• Garthrop 1576 Saxton 1582 LEpis c.1695,1697 Terrier 1714 LML

• Gartherope 1722 ib

• Gartrope 1725 ib

Etymology

This is a name whose first el. presents problems. Lindkvist (48, n.2) suggests that the specific is either ON  geiri 'a triangular, wedge-shaped piece of ground' or the Scand  pers.n. Geiri (v. SPNLY 98). Ekwall DEPN offers the OE  pers.n. *Gāra or ON  garðr 'an enclosure'; while Fellows-Jensen (SSNEM 109) prefers OE  gāra 'a triangular piece of land'.

Both of Lindkvist's suggestions may be safely dismissed. If the first el. were either a non-anglicized Geiri or geiri , some spellings in Geir -/ Geyr - beside Ger - would be expected. Also, the known forms in Ger (e )- amount to five only, compared with the great preponderance in Gar -.The few spellings in Ger (e )- are also confined to a single source, the Pipe Rolls, and may be explained as due to AN influence, because of which a and e before r frequently interchanged (v. Feilitzen 44).Exchequer records would have been particularly prone to such influence.

Ekwall's suggestion of an OE  pers.n. *Gāra as the specific must also be questioned. The name is not recorded independently but may otherwise feature in Goring (Ox 51), Goring (Sx 168) and Garford (Brk 410). In each of these cases, however, OE  gāra may be present rather than a pers.n., although the topography of the Oxfordshire site would seem to preclude it. In each of these instances, the pers.n. (if present) would appear to be of early type and use, since two of the p.ns. are of -ingas formation, signifying a folk-name, while a p.n. in -ford in Berkshire would happily belong to an early stratum of name creation (v. Brk 819–20). However, the continued use of an early OE  pers.n. *Gāra to be compounded with Scand  þorp seems unlikely. Noticeable too is the marked lack of forms with a medial e surviving from an original (weak) gen.sg. of *Gāranþorp 'Gāra's farmstead'. A greater number of forms with medial e would also have been expected with an anglicized form of the Scand  pers.n. Geiri .

Ekwall's alternative suggestion of ON  garðr is formally possible as the specific of the p.n. if the dissimilatory loss *garð -þorp > *gar -þorp has occurred. This would explain the preponderance of spellings in Gar - and lack of medial e . The form Garsthorp 1274 may show dissimilation of ð to s , while the late Gardethorp of 1416 may unusually preserve ð > d , but such isolated spellings must be viewed with suspicion.However, as a first el., garðr is rare, v. Elementss. v. (but cf. Guardhouse, Cu 252).

Finally, OE  gāra would have been expected to provide more numerous spellings with medial e . Only three survive in the editor's collection of some 150 forms ante 1400. However, topographically gāra 'a triangular piece of land' would suit the site of the settlement nicely if one assumes it to have been applied to the v-shaped valley lying to the north of the present village, in the mouth of which it is sited. This gāra may be alluded to in Goring Botham 1690, Goreing bottom 1703 in the village's f.ns. (b) infra .

Hence, either 'the farmstead within an enclosure' (with garðr ) or, perhaps more preferably, 'the farmstead in the triangle of land', v. gāra , þorp , cf. Garton, YE 58 and Garton on the Wolds, YE 96 which present similar problems to Garthorpe.