Windlesham
Major Settlement in the Parish of Windlesham with Bagshot
Historical Forms
- Windesham 1178 Merton
- Wendesham 1401 FF
- Wyndlesham 1223 Bracton 1225 Ass
- Wyndelesham t.Hy3 For 1535 VE
- Wynelesham 1400 FF
- Wyndesham 1238 FF
- Windesham c.1270 Winton
- Wyndysham 1422 FF
- Wynsham 1514 LP 1536 FF
- Wensham 1591–1596 ECP
- Windlesham al. Winsham 1712 Recov
- Winsom(e) 1749 B 1777 SACx
Etymology
'Windel 's ham(m),' cf. Winsor (PN D 262). Windsor (Berks) is about seven miles distant, and the same man may have given name to both places.
Fägersten (PN Do 265–6, s. n. Broadwinsor) contests the etymology 'Windel 's ora,' or 'Winel 's ora' suggested in PN D (loc. cit.) for Winsor, on the ground that it is impossible that the personal name Win (d )el should so frequently be compounded with ora and so rarely with any other element. He suggests instead that the first element is an OE *windel , 'something winding.' It may be difficult to believe that Win (d )el should so often be compounded with ora (cf. however Mawer, Problems of PN Study 85–7), but it is far more difficult to believe in the coincidence that wherever the element windel is used it always forms that very rare type of compound in which the first element is in the genitive case. Further, it should be noted that if there was a place-name element windel , we should expect to find it independently, and as a second element. No example of such usage has been found.