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.

Flegcroft

Early-attested site in the Parish of Whittlesey

Etymology

Flegcroft. Cf. (le ) flech (e )13thThorney , 1328, 1423Ct , Flegcrofts 1636 BedL, Flagcroft 1712 Fenland iv, Flycroft c. 1825 O.S. This name, with Flag Fen infra 264, is to be compared with East and West Flegg Hundred (Nf), Eastflec , Flecwest DB, Estfleg (ge ), Westfleg (ge )1175–95 P.These all contain the word flegge recorded in the Promptorium Parvulorum as the equivalent of segge and used apparently alike of the plant itself and of a district where it grows. As noted by Anderson (EHN i, 70) the word is to be identified with Danish flæg . It is related to the more common flag . For further examples from Cambridgeshire, v. infra 324.