eccles

Meanings

1. plural of eccle

1. A town in Salford, Greater Manchester, England.
2. A village in Aylesford parish, Tonbridge and Malling district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TQ7260).
3. A village north-east of Kelso, Berwickshire, Scottish Borders council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NT7641).
4. A commune in Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France.
5. A census-designated place in Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States, originally named Ecclesiastes.
6. A surname.

Etymology

From Middle English Eccles, from Old English *Eccles, borrowed from pre-Proto-Brythonic *eglēs (“church”), whence Proto-Brythonic *egluɨs. The sound change *ē > *uɨ is regular in Proto-Brythonic, but had evidently not yet occurred when place-name instances of *eglēs in the north were being borrowed into Old English; Jackson (1953) dates this change to the late 7th century. *g > *k is regular assuming borrowing into Old English, which did not have intervocalic /g/ except after a nasal. A number of toponyms in northern Britain are composed of Eccles plus a term of English origin, e.g. Eccleston (+ -ton), Eccleshill (+ hill). Doublet of ecclesia.