-Hay (place name element)

-hay (also hays, hayes, etc.) is a place-name word-ending common in England. It derives from the Old English word hege[1] or haga,[2] Middle English heie,[3] in Icelandic hagi,[4] meaning "an enclosed field", and is from the same root as the English word "hedge", a structure which surrounds and encloses an area of land,[5] from the Norman-French haie, "a hedge".[6] Haw (from O.E. haga) and Hay (from O.E. hege) are cognate and both mean "hedge".[7]

Floyer Hayes shown on a 1765 map of the City of Exeter, Devon, by Benjamin Donn. Many open spaces around the outside of the City walls are shown as suffixed "Hay", such as Shill Hay, Southern Hay, Northern Hay, Fryers Hay, Bon Hay

Examples
  • Cheslyn Hay, Walsall, meaning "a fenced or hedged enclosure", here perhaps around an ancient cromlech or burial-mound.[8]
  • Pipe Hayes ("hedges"), Erdington.[9]

Devon

Exeter

In the vicinity of Exeter:

Tiverton

In the vicinity of Tiverton:

See also

Sources
  • Johnston, Rev. James B., The Place-Names of England and Wales, London, 1915, p. 147

References
  1. Johnston, p.196
  2. Johnston, p.147
  3. Johnston, p.296
  4. Johnston, p.147
  5. Johnston, Rev. James B., The Place-Names of England and Wales, London, 1915, p.147
  6. Johnston, p.75
  7. Johnston, p.296
  8. Johnston, p.196
  9. Johnston, p.402
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