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.

Runcton

Early-attested site in the Parish of North Mundham

Historical Forms

  • Rochintone 1086 DB
  • Rogenton(a) 1110–7,1155 France 1279 Ass 1332 Ch
  • Rongenton 1179 Box
  • Rungueton 1261 Ch
  • Rungeton 1272 RH 1279 Ass 1296 SR
  • Rungedon 1284 FA
  • Rugentun 1279 Ass
  • Rongeton 1291 Tax 1335 Misc 1361 Ch
  • Rongeton al. Rounton commonly called Romton 1540 LP
  • Rounghton 1587 Wills

Etymology

This is a difficult name. The forms in -enton and -inton forbid our interpreting it in the same way as Rounton (PN NRY 217).More probably it is from OE  Rūning (a )tūn , 'Run's farm' or 'farm of Run's people.' The pers. name Rūne is found also in Rowley infra 453 and would be a regular pet-form for one of the OE  names in -rūn ; it has its parallels in Germanic (cf. Förstemann PN 1284). It would almost certainly be a woman's name. The early forms without n may be due to actual loss of n or to the failure to put in the mark of abbreviation over the o , a mark which is put in very clearly in the Boxgrove form of 1179.