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Cuckoo - OE geac, *cucu - ON gaukr - OF cucu

One of the most charismatic and well-known of British birds to turn up in our place-names. Names referring to Old English geac and Old Norse gaukr are recorded (related words, from which Scottish and northern English gowk derives), but also names derived from Old French cucu after the Norman Conquest. It is possible, however, that cucu did in fact already exist in the English language early on, alongside geac (see Richard Coates’ article listed in the sources below). Both geac and cucu are very ancient, going back to Proto-Indo-European.

Although we have no record of geac as a personal name in Old English, there is evidence of gaukr as a Scandinavian nickname, so it is possible that some of the names below do refer to a person rather than the bird (as for Gawthorpe, for instance). Cuckoo has been suggested for all the names below, however, and in many cases is the dominant or preferred choice of interpretation. Asterisks after names below indicates some of those for which there is still not general consensus or for which meanings other than ‘cuckoo’ may be more likely.

Cookley (Suff)*

Cookridge (Yorks)

Coxwold (Yorks)

Cucket Nook (Yorks)*

Cuckfield (E Ssx)

Euximoor Drove (Cambs)

Exbourne (Dev)

Exwell Barton (Dev)

Gauxholme (lost, Yorks)

Gawthorpe Hall (Lancs)*

Gawthorpe (Yorks)

Gawthrop (Cumbs)

Gokewell (Lincs)

Goxhill (Lincs)*

Goxhill (Yorks)*

Yagdon (Shrops)

Yaxley (Cambs)

Yaxley (Suff)

Yaxham (Norf)

Cuckoos appear in charters relating to the following places: Hamsted, historic site, county unknown (10th cen.).

Sources (see ‘About’ page for the full bibliography): Watts, Cambridge Dictionary; Ekwall, Oxford Dictionary; epns.nottingham.ac.uk; Gelling and Cole, Landscape of Place-Names; Richard Coates, ‘English Cuckoos, Dignity and Impudence’, Journal of the English Place-Name Society, 27 (1994-5), 43-9; langscape.org.uk.

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