Naming elements in place names

When I place my characters into a landscape, I usually give them fictional surroundings, based on local names, but made up of [usually Saxon/Old English] naming elements.

I use the same system to give peers names since most are going to be Lord [Somewhere]. 

If I have a definite county in mind, I look at a map to see if there are any peculiarities about naming, such as using -hithe, a good place for a harbour in East Anglia, and Hasel- in rural Wiltshire, as well as the obvious tre-, pol- and pen- in Cornwall.  I haven't gone into the peculiarities of the Cornish dialect, though I have made up the name Penroselly for one of my short stories.  Thorpe tends to be north-eastern. Glen tends to be Scots.  Devon feels right with Otter- [the most famous fictional example being Ottery St Catchpole, home of the Weasley, Diggory and Lovegood families]

As many surnames are locative there is nothing wrong with using these elements for surnames, whether to use as people named after a village, or as a more immediate location, like the surname Attwood, someone who lives at the wood; Nokes, from Attenokes, he who lives by the oak trees, etc.

Following are lists of naming elements with their meanings, for mixing and matching as seems appropriate. Unless appended as ON [old Norse] Lat. [Latin] or Celt [Celtic] they are Saxon in origin.

Land

land an area of land

acre, aker, iker,ager an area of land, an acre is a measure of land.

hurst, hersh, nersh field

field, feld field

wix, wis[ce], -wisse marshy meadow

lea, ley, meadow

hale, heale, hele nook

hop[e] remote enclosed space

brick, brig top, slope

dun [Celt] hill

linch, link bank, hedge

lyth, lith, lither [ON]  slope

thwaite clearing, meadow, paddock

dale or comb valley

den[e] valley or weedy place

-dish pasture

wynn [celt] pasture

ham settlement or hamm land hemmed by water

ton town

wic[h] town anglicised from Lat. vicus

burgh fortified settlement

cester [Lat] town

to which one may also add mud, sand/samp, ston/stain/stan, chesil/ching/chilles gravel to add a component of what it may be made of as well.

Watery words

-ea river

-ea or -ey island or land raised above marsh

beck, brook, brok, burn, bourne, lak[e] stream

keld [ON] stream

fleot, fleet estuary, stream that goes inland

rith/reth small stream sometimes -ry and -ready

mere, mire, marsh, mersh, fen[n] a marshy area

font, spring, well spring

flode, flood, wash an area prone to flooding

strode, stroth, car[r], boggy marginal regions overgrown with brush and water-loving trees like alder

staith [ON]  a place to tie up boats, usually only found in eastern counties.

vath/wath [ON] ford

wade, ford ford

brig, bridge bridge

Concerned with woods and vegetation

den woodland pasture

wood, holt wood

wold uncultivated land, overun with vegetation weald, wald the Kentish version

with [ON] uncultivated land

chet, chat [Celt] wood, forest

grove, grave, beer, bere, barrow thicket or grove

hay, hey woodland enclosure

hangar sloping wood

hurst wooded hill

lound, lund, shaw, skew, seue small wood, shaw implies single species of tree and can be teamed with same

frith fir, scrubland

brake, brak, brex, brec brake,furzy bracken

ac, ake, oc, oak, oke, noke, roke  oak

As, ask, ash, esk ash

boc, box, beech, bex beech

ew yew

berk, bar, birch, birk birch

holen, holm[e] holly

alor, alr, alder alder

appel apple

piri pear

hazel, hasle, hasel hazel

withy, withi[a], weli- weel, win, sall, saul, willow

hather, thorn, thearne, thyrne hawthorn

elm, alm, el elm

lyne, lind lime

asp, esp aspen

red reed

plus rush, sedge, grass, heath, nut

Animals

ox ox

gos goose

hurt, hart stag

wul, wool wolf

bag badger

beever beaver

tad toad

il hedgehog

al eel

pik pike

cran, hern heron

eld, swan swan

fin woodpecker

fowl, ful fowl

gled kite

craw, crow crow

are eagle

find also fish, fox, frog, raven, cat etc

Miscellaneous

brad, braid broad

durn, darn, dern hidden

dip, dep deep

scal shallow

ful foul

lang, long long

sher[e] bright

so here are some to get you going: Bradwath, Braxstrode, Withymere, Litherthwaite, Okedene.   Have fun!