Vagniacis

Attested:  AI iter 2 Vagniacis

Where:  Roman settlement at Springhead, Kent, at TQ 61747246 where Watling Street crossed the head of the river Ebbsfleet.

Name Origin:  ‘Marshy place’, from PIE *wegh- ‘to go’, which led to OE wagian ‘to wag, to move back and forwards’.  Hence the sense ‘quaking bog’, which Ekwall (1964) recognised in Domesday Book's Wagene, now Wawne near Hull.  Related to Welsh gwaun and Breton geun ‘marsh’.

Notes:  A parallel name exists not far away in the little river Quaggy through Greenwich and Lewisham.

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Last edited 6 January 2020     To main Menu