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Wren - OE wrenna, wrenne, wrænna or wærna

The difficulty with ‘wren’ in place-names is that early English people might have had a near-identical word for the mighty stallion as they did for the diminutive wren (*wræna). It is one of those species we can’t be certain is intended when the word turns up in names (asterisks appear after names below where there is more ambiguity on this confusion than with others), but since other small brown birds make appearances, there’s no reason to dismiss Troglodytes troglodytes as a possibility. Nor should we necessarily be discouraged when the name is joined with human settlement or construction terms, as in Warnford or Wrenbury below; there are other examples in the record of birds being associated with human habitations (Owslebury in Hampshire, for instance: blackbird fort).

That ‘wren’ could occur in place-names is demonstrated well in a reference to wrænnan leage ‘the wrens’ wood’ in a 10th-century charter concerning land at Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire. In the cases of the names below, then, stallions or possibly an unrecorded personal name are possible or likely rather than the bird, but nonetheless, ‘wren’ has been noted as a possibility.

Warmfield (Yorks)

Warfield (Berks)

Warnford (Hants)

Wrantage (Som)

Wrenbury (Ches)

Wreningham (Norf)

Wrinstead (Kent)

The wren appears (again, depending on interpretation) in charters relating to the following places: Crediton, Dev (8th cen.), Hardenhuish, Wilts (9th cen.), Longworth, Berks (10th cen.), Pucklechurch, Glos (10th cen.), South Heighton, Ssx (10th cen.), Winkfield, Berks (10th cen.).

Sources (see ‘About’ page for the full bibliography): Watts, Cambridge Dictionary; Ekwall, Oxford Dictionary; www.langscape.org.uk.

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