Wanborough

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A village in the county of Surrey in southern England ; a village in the county of Wiltshire in southwest England
2. A small English village located in Surrey, the southern county ; a different English village found in Wiltshire to the west
3. A settlement in Surrey, England, known as a village ; another village bearing the same name in Wiltshire, England

Etymology: Wanborough's "-borough" is not the word for a chartered town. It comes from Old English "beorg," meaning hill or barrow, the same element that gives "-bury" in many English place names. Both the Surrey and Wiltshire villages were named for a rise in the land, so the name describes a landscape before it describes a settlement. The first element, "Wan-," is less certain. It is most likely an Old English personal name or the name of a pagan god, possibly Woden, so the name may have meant something like "Woden's hill" or "the hill of a man named Wann." Early spellings vary, which makes it hard to pin down which explanation is correct. Two separate villages carrying the same name suggests the name was common enough in Anglo-Saxon England to be applied independently in more than one place.