Barnes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A leafy residential district in southwest London beside the River Thames ; a family name carried by several notable English people
2. An affluent riverside neighbourhood in southwest London on the Thames ; a common English surname shared by numerous well-known figures
3. A London suburb on the banks of the Thames in the southwest of the city ; an English family name borne by a number of prominent individuals

Etymology: Barnes is a riverside district in south-west London, on a bend of the Thames, and its name is the old word "barne" in its plural form. In Old English, "bern" or "barn" meant a building for storing grain, and the place name is a plural of that noun, so it refers to a cluster of such buildings. Barn itself is a compound of "bere" (barley) and "ern" (a house), which makes it literally a barley-house. The same plural pattern appears in other English place names that point to farmyards and storage sites, which is how the Barnes name came to be given to a settlement built around those outbuildings. Nothing in the source suggests a personal name lies behind it, so the district's name is best understood as a description of the place rather than a tribute to anyone.