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.

Fenby

Major Settlement in the Parish of Ashby cum Fenby

Historical Forms

  • Fendebi 1086 DB
  • Fenbi hundred 1086 DB
  • Fembi c.1115 LS
  • Fenbi 1190,1191,1192 P
  • Fenb' 1204 1238–41 Fees
  • Fenby 1231 Cl 1231 Ch 1242–43 Fees c.1276 LNQvii 1311 Pat 1312 Fine 1312 Orig 1327 SR 1328 Ipm 1347 Cor
  • Fenbe 1498 Pat
  • Fenneby 1261 FF 1275,1276 RH 1295 Ipm 1311 YearBk 1311 Ipm 1362 et passim
  • Feneby 1338 HarlCh
  • Fanneby 1299 Pat 1300 Orig
  • Fannebie 1556 CA

Etymology

'The farm, village in the fen', v. fenn , , an Anglo-Danish hybrid with the first el. OE  fenn. It is most likely to be a partial Scandinavianization of an earlier OE p.n., perhaps Fenton, with a similar meaning. The name is represented today by Fenby Fm, which lies in what must have been a fenny area on the lower slope of the Wolds.