Editing Berkhamsted (section)

===Origin of the town's name===
[[File:Tring Barkhamsted map 1659.jpg|thumb|[[Joan Blaeu]] map of Hertfordshire from 1659 showing ''Barkhamsted''{{sic}}, one of the many archaic spellings of the town's name]]
The earliest recorded spelling of the town's name is the 10th century [[Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon]] ''Beorhðanstædæ''. The first part may have originated from either the [[Old English]] words ''beorg'', meaning "hill", or ''berc'' or ''beorc'', meaning "[[birch]]"; or from the older [[Old Celtic]] word ''Bearroc'', meaning "hilly place". The latter part, "hamsted", derives from the Old English word for homestead. So the town's name could be either mean "homestead amongst the hills" or the "homestead among the birches".<ref name="David Mills">{{cite book|last=Mills | first=David |title=A Dictionary of British Place-Names|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tXucAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA53|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-019960908-6|page=53}}</ref><ref name="Caroline Taggart">{{cite book|author=Caroline Taggart|title=The Book of English Place Names: How Our Towns and Villages Got Their Names|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7xNNERjxFr4C&pg=PA153|year=2011|publisher=Random House|isbn=978009194043-0|page=153}}</ref>

Through history spellings of the town's name have changed. Local historian Rev John Wolstenholme Cobb identified over 50 different versions of the town's name since the writing of the [[Domesday Book]] (such as: "Berkstead", "Berkampsted", "Berkhampstead", "Muche Barkhamstede", "Berkhamsted Magna", "Great Berkhamsteed" and "Berkhamstead".)<ref name=page1908>{{harvnb|Page|1908|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/victoriahis02page#page/162/mode/1up 162–179]}}</ref>{{sfn|Cobb|1883|loc=[https://archive.org/stream/twolecturesonhis00cobbrich#page/104 Appendix I]}}  The present spelling was officially adopted in 1937 when the local council formally changed its name from Great Berkhampstead to Berkhamsted.<ref name=change>{{cite book |last1=Registrar General |title=Quarterly Return: Births, Deaths and Marriages registered in the quarter ended 31st December 1937 |year=1934 |publisher=His Majesty's Stationery Office |location=London |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2iQYAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Great+Berkhampstead%22+change+of+name&pg=RA15-PA17 |access-date=13 September 2021 |quote=Great Berkhampstead Urban District renamed to Berkhamsted Urban District, 19 July 1937.}}</ref> The town's local nickname is "Berko".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/threecounties/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8598000/8598429.stm |title=Joseph Millson talks about loving life in Berko|last= Herman |
first=Judi |date=1 April 2010 |publisher=BBC |access-date=13 November 2014}}</ref>