Chertsey

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A historic market town on the River Thames in the county of Surrey in southern England
2. A riverside town in Surrey, England, known for its abbey ruins and its association with the Thames
3. An English town in the county of Surrey, located on the banks of the River Thames in the south of England

Etymology: Chertsey is a town in Surrey, and its name is a record of a small piece of land standing in the water. The Old English form was "Ċeortes īeġ", where "īeġ" meant "island" (the same element that survives in "Ely" and "Battersea"). The first part is a personal name, a man called Cerot, so the whole name meant "Cerot's island." The island is the real clue to the place. The town grew up beside the River Thames, where a raised patch of ground rose above the surrounding marshy river land, and the name stuck to the settlement that formed on it. A personal name joined to "island" was a common way for Anglo-Saxon settlers to label a place after its first owner or founder, and Chertsey keeps that pattern intact.