Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Ippesbury t.Ed2,1331 For

• Ipesbury 1570 PembSurv

• Ipsburie cops 1589 WMxxxv

Etymology

Ebsbury (old camp) is Ippesbury t. Ed 2, 1331For , Ipesbury 1570 PembSurv, Ipsburie cops 1589 WM xxxv. This name, like Ipsley (PN Wa 213) and Ipsden (PN O 135), points to an OE  personal name Ippi . See the full discussion in PN Wa loc. cit . For Ipsley and Ipsden Ekwall (DEPN) has suggested a first element OE  yppe , denoting in one case the Chiltems and in the other a small round hill. On the phonological side there is the serious difficulty that for all these names we have only one ME form in u , whereas all of them are found in areas where we should expect frequent u -forms. On the semantic side 'valley of the hill' is unsatisfactory as a place-name and there is the further difficulty that it would be very surprising if this unrecorded noun were found thrice over in a genitival compound, admittedly a rare type of formation.