Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Moghtonlayke 1402 IpmR

• Mouthowlake 1422 NB

• Monthonlake 1422 IpmR

• Moutholake, Moutherlake 1770 PR(B)

• Mouthelicke 1804 ib

• Mouthlick 1829 Dir

• -lock 1830 NWm 1863 OS

• Montlake 1666,1669,1670 PR(B)

• Monthlick 1723 ib

• Montholick 1757,1774 PR(B)

• Monthalick 1768 ib

Etymology

One of the difficulties with this p.n. is uncertainty about the form of the first el.; in the later spellings both Month - and Mouth - are certainly used, but the oldest spelling Mogh - and the modern form Mouth - suggest that Mouth - rather than Month - should be the reading in the earlier documents where a clear palæographic differentiation of -u - and -n - is not made. Similarly this ambiguity makes it difficult to be certain if the second el. should read as -tou - or -ton -. It is possible, in view of the spelling Moghton - that the first theme is a ME  Moʒe -ton from OE  mūga 'heap, stack' (cf. ModE dial. mow 'haystack', 'mound, hillock'), with tūn , the compound denoting 'a stackyard' or 'a hill farm', or even with dun 'hill', as was suggested for a parallel p.n. Moughton (YW vi, 230); the replacement of tūn for another el. is also suggested for Middleton (ii, 43supra ). The final el. in that case would be ON  leikr '(a place for) sport, a place where animals played'. The farm is high up the side of Millstone Howe. Because of the early obscurity of the name there has clearly been a confusion in orthographic tradition which may well have influenced its phonetic history; the medial el. was replaced by haugr 'hill'.