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.

Tom Thumb

Field in the Parish of Scraptoft

Historical Forms

  • 1781 Map

Etymology

Tom Thumb 1781 (the reference may be to the nursery tale hero, Tom Thumb, the son of a ploughman who was only as tall as his father's thumb, hence describing a very small plot of land; otherwise the name may be tom thumb, that of a small wild flower, especially bird's foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus))