THE SUFFIX “HAM” NOT EXCLUSIVELY DERIVED FROM A TEUTONIC SOURCE, BUT OCCASIONALLY ALSO FROM THE CELTIC.
By James Hurly Pring, M.D.
IN a former volume of The Antiquarian Magazine (vol. iii. p. 127) I pointed out that the place-name Hampton did not necessarily represent the Saxon “home-town,” as has so generally, yet erroneously, been assumed, but that the name is frequently derived also from Avon or rather Afon, the Celtic word for water or a river, and that it ought, therefore, strictly to be Afonton.
It was shown that this latter view was maintained by Camden, in evidence of which he cites Leland to prove that Hampton Court was anciently called Avon, as it appears in quoting from him the following lines:—
“Est locus insolito rerum splendore superbus
Alluiturque vagâ Tamisini fluminis undâ;
Nomine ab antiquo jam tempore dictus Avona.”
“Where Father Thames his gentle stream rolls on,
Avona called, an ancient name it bears.”
Gough’s Camden, vol. ii. p. 78.
Here, then, and throughout the paper referred to, it will be seen that Ham is presented to us chiefly, if not solely, in its aspect as a prefix.
It is now my intention to proceed to consider it more especially as a suffix, in which use the instances of it are far more numerous than those in which it is employed as a prefix.
It would seem, then, as a suffix to be almost universally regarded as representing the Saxon “home,” and even Isaac Taylor himself gives no other than a Teutonic derivation for it.
True it is that in this derivation he makes a distinction, dividing it into the two forms of hăm and hām, maintaining that the former signifies an enclosure, whilst the latter is “the Home.” Without venturing to question the accuracy of this distinction, it is to be regretted that (except, indeed, so far as may be guessed at from its associations) it leaves us without any rule whereby we may be enabled to distinguish the hām, the geheim or home, from hăm an enclosure; whilst, as just stated, Taylor altogether omits to notice that there is yet another distinct source from which “ham” is derived, which is indeed in no respect Teutonic, but is clearly to be referred to the Celtic, as insisted upon both by Camden and by Leland.
The instances in which the termination-ham must be thus referred to the Celtic (as a Saxon corruption of the word Afon) are well marked and are by no means rare, and it is possible that some of those which have been regarded as examples of hăm, an enclosure, may be found to belong rather to the Celtic derivation from Afon. As an illustration of ham in the latter aspect, I will at once refer to the class of examples of the word which is furnished by those large tracts of country which are or formerly were liable to inundation from the occasional overflow of some adjacent river (afon), and which have accordingly received the appellation of “hams”—that is, rich low-lying lands in the vicinity of rivers.