Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• (æt) Bedewindan c.880 BCS553 c.1000 JEGPhxxxiii,344 c.1000

• Bedewinde, (in) Bedewindan 778 ib

• Bed(e)uuindan 968 c.1225 ib

• Bedeuuinde c.1016 KCD1312 c.1225

• Bedewin(e) a.1042–66 Coins

• Bedewind 1066–87 Coins

• Bedvine, Bedvinde 1086 DB

• Bedewinde 1091 StOsmund 1317 Cl

• Estbedewinde 1154 RBE 1156 P

• Bedewinða 1198 P

• Bidewind' 1235 Cl

• Chepingbedewynde 1276 Ass

• Chippingbedewynde 1279 GDR

• Bedwynd 1472–85 ECP

• Est Bedewyn 1437 IpmR

• Bedewyn 1438 Pat

• Bedwyn Abbotes 1502 ECP

• Gretebedwyn, Lyttelbedwyn 1547 SR

• East Bedwyne al. Lyttle Bedwyne 1633 WIpm

• Bidwing 1653 PCC

• Great Beden 1655 ParReg

Etymology

Bedwyn is derived by Ekblom (PN W s. n .) and by Ekwall (DEPN) from an OE  form of dialectal bedwine , bedwind , 'wild clematis,' with reference to a place where this plant or some similar one abounded. Already, however, in OE times Bedwyn is found as a stream-name (v. supra 1) and it may be that the stream-name gave origin to the place-name and not vice versa . If, as seems more likely, the name is pre-English in origin, it might be a compound of British *betuā 'birch' (Welsh  bedw ), and *vindā , 'white' (Welsh  gwen , fem.).