Goose
Anser
Goose - OE gos - ON gas
The difficulty with geese (as well as ducks) in the medieval period is that they were familiar barnyard creatures, so knowing which place-names including gos refer to domesticated birds and which to wild flocks is difficult, even impossible, to determine. Certainly, we know from archaeological remains wild species were caught and eaten, as was the case with many water birds, so we can’t rule out the possibility of wild geese being intended in some names. But the common sight of poultry almost anywhere in earlier times, as well as the birds’ economic value, means that farmyard geese probably account for a considerable number of the names below.
Gaisgill (Cumbs)
Gazegill (Yorks)
Gosbeck (Suff)
Gooseham (Corn)
Goosey (Oxon)
Goscote (Leics)
Gosfield (Esx)
Gosford (Dev)
Gosford (Oxon)
Gosford (Warks)
Gosforth (Cumbs)
Gosforth (Northumb)
Gosmore (Herts)
Gosport (Hants)
Goosewell (Dev)
Goswick (Northumb)
Geese appear in charters relating to the following places: Bishops Lydeard, Som (9-10th cen.), Hurstbourne Tarrants, Hants (10th cen.), Knoyle, Wiltshire (10th cen.), lympne, Kent (11th cen.), Wolverhampton, Staffs (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; langscape.org.uk.