What does the name of my hometown (village! hamlet!) mean?

🐄 ‘Land where young bullocks are kept’.

🗺️ That’s the meaning of Little Strickland, the hamlet where I grew up in Cumbria. (Well, the ‘Strickland’ part anyway.)

🇬🇧 In Old English, stīrc was a young bullock or heifer. There are still lots of young bullocks kept in that area so things haven’t really changed much!

🌄 My last family member living in Little Strickland moved last year, but I’m still up in the area often, especially in nearby Penrith (which means red hills: pen = hill, rith = red. This derives from Cumbric. And there is lots of sandstone in the area. Lots of lovely red brick terraces in the town.)

🐺 My husband’s family are in Wolverhampton. It looks like this may have been named after King Wulfhere of Mercia. There was a Lady Wulfrun later who can be seen depicted in a statue in St Peter’s church in the city centre.

🤓 I find stuff like this fascinating. Love a bit of etymology. Actually, toponymy is more accurate. The study of place names.

❓What’s the meaning of the place name where you live? Does it still reflect something about the place?