They resemble theoretical bodies in quantum mechanics in that one manor can have two or three names at once, and then cease to be known as anything at all while remaining unchanged in every other respect. It may be possible to identify a place with the same name as a manor, but it is equally possible that no place today retains the name. Most confusingly a manor is occasionally known by the places within it, chosen at random, it seems, by a clerk. Over the course of several hundred years a manor can shift location, shrink, grow, change name, change ownership or tenure, and become utterly unrecognisable. Another confusing fact about manorial names is that manors merge and split, sometimes only temporarily, and it is difficult to know whether one has a document which is dealing with two manors or one.
Complications increase further.
Many manors split into moieties or parts on inheritance between two or more daughters. Sometimes further splits happen, and sometimes parts of the manor come back together again. Thus one manor can be in several people's ownership, in varying proportions, through varying descents, and still function as a unit. A manor in fact can still function even when all its land has been sold off, since certain rights might still be retained by the lord. This last fact that a manor is not necessarily a place is most important.