Like every part of the world Britain's place names have a story to tell, and reflect the history of our island. In our own case many of the names have Norse and Anglo Saxon origins, with Latin and some Norman influences later.

Place names fall basically into three types - topographical (describing landscape features), habitative (defining a settlement), or folk (referring to a people or tribe). Generally you will find that place names combine two or three of these as, for example, in Kirkby which means church village.

The list below - which is by no means comprehensive - gives some modern prefix and suffixes you will find in Britain's place names.

Key: Anglo Saxon, Old Norse, Old English, Latin, Norman, Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish