Rook - OE hroc

Like most of the old corvid names, hroc is clearly onomatopoeic. It does a good of conveying that throaty raucousness that rooks make, somewhere between a raven’s deep cronk and a carrion crow’s caw.

Like OE crawe and hrafn, hroc appears in plenty of place-names. As with the others, though, it is impossible to know which of the hroc names originally and deliberately referred to Corvus frugilegus, though no doubt some must have, especially given the rook’s highly social behaviour and roosting habits which lends itself to spectacle and easy observation. For further discussion of the difficulties attached to medieval corvid names, see the page for carrion crow.

Rockbeare (Dev)

Rockhall Hill (Northants)

Rocklands Farm (ESsx)

Rockley (Wilts)

Rockley (lost, Yorks)

Rockley Abbey (lost, Yorks)

Rockley Farm (Dev)

Rockwell End (Bucks)

Roffey Hall (Esx)

Rookabear Farm (Devon)

Rook Barugh (Yorks)

Rookbeare Farm (Dev)

Rookby (Cumb)

Rook Hall (Heybridge, Esx)

Rook Hall (Kelvedon, Esx)

Rookhill Farm (Wilts)

Rookholt Farm (Esx)

Rook Wood (lost, Esx)

Rookwood Hall (Esx)

Rothamsted (lost, Herts)

Roxford (Herts)

Roxley Farm (Sry)

Rucketts (lost, Esx)

Ruckholt Farm (Esx)

Ruckley (Shrop)

Ruckley Grange (Shrop)

Ruxbury (Sry)

Ruxford (Dev)

Stoke Canon, originally Hrocastoc (Dev)

Fields: Rochaue (Rut), Rokeshulle, Hook Norton (Oxon), Ruckcliffe, Walshcroft (Lincs), Rookewod, Thornbury (Glos), Rokhulle, Cirencester (Glos),