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.

Dean

Early-attested site in the Parish of Spelsbury

Historical Forms

  • Dene 1086 DB
  • Deyne 1473 ParColl early18th
  • Deyne Grove 1542 Dean

Etymology

'Valley,' v. denu . Cf. Dean 2: “at one time the greater part of it must have been down at the bottom of the hill on which it now stands,” and “fields called Town's End Hill lying well to the south of the village suggest that in the late Middle Ages Dean was still a village in a valley” (ib. 10).