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.

Crambe

Major Settlement in the Parish of Crambe

Historical Forms

  • Crambom, Cranbon(e) 1086 DB
  • Crambum 1086 DB c.1145–80 YCh 1391 Test
  • Cranbu' 1168 P
  • Crambom 1301 LS 1336 Ch
  • Crambumb' 1303 Ebor
  • Crambhom 1316 Vill
  • Cramb(e) 1577 Saxton 1578 FF

Etymology

This name seems to contain ME  crome , cromb , 'hook, crook' (found post 1400), from OE  *cramb , cromb (v. NED s.v. crome ); cf. OE  crumb , cromb , 'crooked, bent.' The ultimate origin of this seems to be a Germanic word cognate with Brit  *krumbos , later evidenced as W crwm , crom , Ir  crom , OGael cromb , 'bent, crooked.'

The original form of the name Crambe is OE  (æt þǣm ) crambum , 'at the crooks,' and the crooks must refer, as in the case of Buttercrambe 36supra , to the serpentine bends of the river Derwent in the midst of which both places are situated.See also Croome, PN Wo 118, for a similar type of name.

Places in the same Parish