English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Saddington

Major Settlement in the Parish of Saddington

Historical Forms

  • Sadintone 1086 DB
  • Sadinton' 1195 P 1196 ChancR 1283 Cl l.13 RTemple 1316 FA c.1350 Deed
  • Sadintun' 1221,1222 ClR m.13 Laz 1404
  • Setintone 1086 DB
  • Seddinton 1200 Fine
  • Satinton' 1176,1177,1181 P
  • Sadingtona l.12 Rut
  • Sadington' 1230,1231 Cur 1248 Rut c.1250 Peake 1549,1554 Fine 1576,1579 LEpis
  • ~ Moeles 1316 Ipm
  • Sadingtone 1231 RHug
  • Sadyngton' a.1250(1404),m.13(1404) Laz 1428 FA 1437 Fine 1537 CoPleas
  • Sadyngtone 1324(p),1327 AD
  • Sadynton' 1322 LCDeeds 1323 WoCart 1449 Pat 1335 Fine 1343
  • Saddyngton 1536 Braye
  • Saddington 1576 LibCl 1579 LEpis

Etymology

Saddington stands on high ground some nine miles south-east of Leicester and appears to belong to the group of OE place-names in -ingtun to its east and south-east, including Evington, Loddington, Skeffington and perhaps Knossington. The pers.n. of the specific is uncertain. Ekwall (DEPN) suggests the masc. OE  Sǣgēat (the reflex of which appears in DB as Saiet ) but notes that one would perhaps have expected the g j to have left a trace, although Norman influence might be the reason for the monophthongization of ai to a . Mills (DBPN) as an alternative OE  pers.n. suggests an unrecorded Sǣhǣð , while Watts (CDEPN) proposes an unrecorded OE  monothematic masc. pers.n. Sada , noting in comparison the first el. of the Langobardic pers.n. Sadipertus .A further possibility, as suggested by the late Professor Bruce Dickins (personal communication), is an unrecorded OE  by-name Sæd (d ) from the adj. sæd 'sad, weary'. The other Leics. place-names with -ingtun appear to contain monothematic rather than dithematic pers.ns., which would accord with their proposed 8th-cent. date (v. Barrie Cox, 'Aspects of place-name evidence for early medieval settlement in England', Viator 11 (1980), 35–60, at 44). Hence tentatively, one might think of Saddington as 'the village, estate associated with or called after a man named Sæd(d) or Sada', v. -ingtūn .

Nicholaus de Moeles held the manor in 1316 Ipm and is the source of the uniquely recorded affix.