dear peteyweetey,
According to the 1911 encyclopedia which is filled with historical
information:
"Hampshire was among the earliest shires to be created, and must have
received its name before the revival of Winchester in the latter half
of the 7th century. It is first mentioned in the Saxon chronicle in
755, at which date the boundaries were practically those of the
present day."
http://59.1911encyclopedia.org/H/HA/HAMPSHIRE.htm
"Hanstweb" - Hampshire County Council's web site, explains the origin
of the abbreviation "Hants":
"Hampshire" is often abbreviated in written form to "Hants" and which
sometimes gives rise to puzzlement. The abbreviated form is derived
from the Old English "Hantum" plus "Scir" (meaning a district governed
from the settlement now known as Southampton) and the Anglo-Saxons
called it Hamtunschire. At the time of the Domesday Book (1086) this
was compressed to Hantescire.
https://www.hants.gov.uk/localpages/names.html
To answer your question, the origin of the name comes from the Old
English word "homm" or "hamm". A homm or hamm was, in Old English, a
water meadow and the county has its fair share of these. The original
name for Southampton was Hamtun or Homtun meaning the farm on the
river land.
http://www.camelotintl.com/heritage/counties/england/hampshire.html
The name was first recorded in 755 as Hamtunscir. The name "Hamtun"
dates from 917 AD and means "the main manor or village of the local
area". A scire (pronounced shire), denoted an area consisting of a
number of hundreds administered by a sheriff through a shiremoot; the
word county, from the Norman word compte, came later.
http://www.gwp.enta.net/nhantarticle.htm
hope this helps |
