These compound names make up the majority of place names in England. Considered functionally there are three types of English place names. The first type is folk names, which is the name of a folk or people which became the name of their settlement. These names are generally quite old. The second type of place name is a habitative name, which may be simplex or compound.
Habitative names contain some element which indicates human settlement.
They describe some feature of the landscape. Often topographic names later came to be applied to a nearby settlement. The earliest place names in England are a small number that may be pre Celtic in origin, including the river names Colne, Humber, Itchen, Ouse and Wey. They survived because of their adoption by the Britons and subsequently by the Anglo Saxons. Next in antiquity are the British names, used by the Britons.