Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Thrange 1574 Rent

• Throng 1706,1719 Ct

• Thrang 1839 TA

Etymology

Thrang, Thrange 1574 Rent, Throng 1706, 1719Ct , Thrang 1839TA . The el. thrang also occurs several times elsewhere in We in Throng (i, 42), Thrang End (i, 73), Thrang Head (i, 185 supra ), The Thrang (ii, 18), Thrangehowe (ii, 199), and Thrang Crag (ii, 218infra ), and in Cumberland in Thrangholm (Cu 135). In each example which can be exactly located the name refers to the narrower part of a deep, steep-sided valley with a road running through it, or to a side ravine; at Thrang it may denote a narrow part of Great Langdale valley (at grid 82–319053) or the ravine on its northern side called Thrang Gill (at grid 82– 320059). The el. thrang , therefore, is probably from ON  þrǫng , which besides meaning 'crowd, throng' also denotes 'a defile, narrows, straits', whilst the ON  adj. þrǫngr also means 'narrow', as in í þrǫngva dal þeim 'in that narrow valley'; similar usages apply also to OSwed  þrang and the adj. þranger (Söderwall s.v.). The noun occurs in the Dan  p.ns. Tranget (J. P. Trap, Danmark (5th ed.), vi, pt 1 (1960), 152–3, 268, 301), the Norw  r.n. Tronka (NElv 276) and Norw  p.ns. Traangen (NG xvii, 111), Trangan (ib xiv, 118), Trangen (ib ii, 253), and Trangsrud (ib iii, 242, 287), and a side-form in Trengen (ib v, 389); the adj. appears in Norw  Trangedal (ib v, 400); in most of these names the meaning appears to be 'constricted place, narrow road or defile'.