England is famous for its eccentric place names, from'Matching Tye' to'Fingringhoe' and'Upton Snodsbury'. But a new AI study now reveals the most English-sounding locations in the country – and they certainly conjure up images of cricket and afternoon tea. The study shows that'Harlington', a district of London, is the most archetypal English place name, along with'Widdington' in Essex and'Colworth' in West Sussex. It contrast, 'Anna', a settlement in Hampshire, is the least English-sounding, along with'Belgravia' in London and'Moira' in Leicestershire. Although AI was used to determine the language basis of English place names, not the meaning, the results could reveal more about the history of the locations.

In English place name analysis, meanings are often derived from the resemblance of roots in place names to topographical features, proper names and/or habitation terms in one of the languages that have had an influence on English place names. The problem here is that it is sometimes difficult to determine the base language to use to interpret the roots. The purpose of this paper is to stochastically determine the resemblance between 18799 English place names and 84687 place names from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Ancient Rome. Each English place name is ranked according to the extent to which it resembles place names from the other countries, and this provides a basis for determining the likely language to use to interpret the place name. A number of observations can be made using the ranking provided. In particular, it is found that `Harlington' is the most archetypically English place name in the English sample, and `Anna' is the least. Furthermore, it is found that the place names in the non-English datasets are most similar to Norwegian place names and least similar to Welsh place names.