Above photo: View towards Padfield Brook House
Meaning of the word Padfield
Being an etymologist or historian would have made this task a little less challenging. Piecing together an authentic definition of the word Padfield, especially from online sources, directly relates to validity of sources. Unless those sources have been written by specialists in their chosen fields of study, the validity of these is always going to be questionable at best. However, with the aid of an etymological dictionary, an Old English to Modern English translator and a scholarly text, we can piece together an approximation of what the word Padfield might mean.
Definition
A topographic/locational name originating from the place in Derbyshire.
It was recorded as “Padefeld” in the Domesday Book of 1086, and later as “Paddefeld” in the Pipe Rolls[1] in 1185.
The first element may derive from either Old English padde (from Old Norse padda) meaning "toad", or from an Old English personal name Pada or Padda. Additionally:
The second element derives from Old English feld (Old Frisian feld, Old Saxon feld, Old Dutch feld) meaning "plain, pasture, open or cultivated land,” or field, an area free of woodland. It also means “a parcel of land marked off and used for pasture or tillage,” and is probably related to the Old English word folde, meaning “earth, land or territory”.
Definition
A topographic/locational name originating from the place in Derbyshire.
It was recorded as “Padefeld” in the Domesday Book of 1086, and later as “Paddefeld” in the Pipe Rolls[1] in 1185.
The first element may derive from either Old English padde (from Old Norse padda) meaning "toad", or from an Old English personal name Pada or Padda. Additionally:
- the archaic word pad (from Old English padde) meaning "toad" is cognate[2] with Danish padde, Swedish padda and Icelandic padda), also meaning "frog or toad".
- the name Padda appears in the Historia Ecclesiastica[3] as a priest who helped Bishop Wilfrid convert the South Saxons to Christianity in the 7th Century. This text pre-dates the Domesday Book by more than 350 years.
The second element derives from Old English feld (Old Frisian feld, Old Saxon feld, Old Dutch feld) meaning "plain, pasture, open or cultivated land,” or field, an area free of woodland. It also means “a parcel of land marked off and used for pasture or tillage,” and is probably related to the Old English word folde, meaning “earth, land or territory”.
This may not be an entirely accurate translation but it could read something along the lines of:
If such a person existed and Padda was a real Old English name used around the 7th Century, who he might have been and what he was doing in Anglo-Saxon Mercia can only be speculated. On a lighter note though, if Padda owned the lands round the parts of what is present-day Padfield and those lands were indeed inhabited with toads then it is safe to say the above definition is, after all, a close enough approximation.
- Definition 1: Pasture inhabited with toads, or land frequented by toads.
- Definition 2: Pad(d)a's Field.
If such a person existed and Padda was a real Old English name used around the 7th Century, who he might have been and what he was doing in Anglo-Saxon Mercia can only be speculated. On a lighter note though, if Padda owned the lands round the parts of what is present-day Padfield and those lands were indeed inhabited with toads then it is safe to say the above definition is, after all, a close enough approximation.
Notes and sources
Notes
- Pipe Rolls, also known as Great Roll, are a detailed collection of financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, or Treasury, and its successors from 1130 to 1833.
- Words that are cognate are related in origin, descending from the same ancestral root word.
- The Historia Ecclesiastica (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) was written by the Venerable Bede and was believed to have been completed by the year 731.
Sources
- Online Etymology Dictionary © 2001-2016 Douglas Harper
- Old English to Modern English Translator © 2008-2014 Blue Engine
- Runes and Runic Inscriptions (1998) by Raymond Ian Page, David Parsons
- Internet Surname Database © 1980 - 2016 Name Origin Research