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.

Henbrook

Early-attested site in the Parish of Dodderhill

Historical Forms

  • Hensbroc 770 BCS204 11th
  • Hennebroc 1201 WoC c.1240
  • Henbrook 1559 Wills

Etymology

Sievers (Angelsächsische Grammatik , 289, n. 3) explains this name as containing the word hens , a noun with an s -suffix which would be the English cognate of ON  hæns , a collective plural denoting poultry. Hence 'hens' (i.e. probably moorhens') brook.'