Crake and rail - possibly from ON kraka and krakr

This is a tricky one and highly speculative. The etymological roots of the names below are the Old Norse names for corvid species, and I am unable to ascertain quite how some experts have come to the conclusion that in these particular cases we are dealing with some sort of transference of the name from crow to crake (which, if so, presumably happened because of the similarities in the calls of these families of birds), especially when other place-names with these same Old Norse words are interpreted straightforwardly as corvid sites. Nonetheless, crakes and rails have been suggested as possible interpretations of the names of some northern county locations, even with some confidence: ‘Marsh frequented by watercrakes’; ‘The reference is to some member of the rail or Ralidae family, e.g., corncrake’.

The corncrake, incidentally, may have had a specific name, although this does not appear in place-names. Secgscara ‘sedge-shearer’ has been recommended on the basis that this name translate the medieval Latin name for the quail (ortigometra) in some glossaries, a very similar-looking species, and because secgscara very nicely describes the scything sound of the corncrake’s incessant song (which would have been a widespread and familiar summer sound across Britain and Ireland). There is every chance it was a more generally applied crake/rail/partridge term as well though.

Crakehall (Yorks)

Crakemarsh (Staffs)

Sources (see ‘About’ page for the full bibliography): Watts, Cambridge Dictionary; Ekwall, Oxford Dictionary; epns.nottingham.ac.uk; Kitson, ‘Old English Bird Names (i)'.