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.

Leatherhead

Major Settlement in the Parish of Leatherhead

Historical Forms

  • (æt) Leodridan 880–5 BCS553 c.1000
  • Leret 1086 DB
  • Lered 1250 Misc
  • Ledred(e) 1155 RBE 1504 Ipm
  • Lereda 1156 P
  • Lerred 1212 Fees
  • Lareda 1158 P
  • Ladrede 1210–12 RBE
  • Leddred(e) c.1190 Deed 1195 P 1420 BM
  • Ledered(e) 1241 Ass 1428 FA
  • Ledreth 1255 Ass
  • Leddret 1255,1376 Ass
  • Ledride c.1270 Winton 1327 Pat 1391 FF
  • Ledryde 1279 Ass
  • Leddride 1337 SR
  • Ledderede 1279 Ass
  • Lethered 1470 FF 1603 SrWills
  • Letherhed 1504 Merton
  • Letherhedde 1578 FF
  • Letherhede t.Eliz ChancP
  • Ledred al. Lethered 1604 Recov
  • Leatherhead 1630 FF

Etymology

This name must remain an unsolved problem. With its first element so suggestive of OE  lēod , 'people,' and its second element so obscure, the name looks very much as if even the OE form was really the result of some piece of folk-etymology, just as the present-day form is the outcome of folk-etymology working on the OE and ME forms. What the ultimate (and possibly Celtic) sub-stratum may be, it would be hazardous to conjecture.