Kings Lynn, Norfolk : Place names

Names from historical writing:

The following appear as names for Kings Lynn. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name	Author	Source
BISHOPS LINNE	William Camden	Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
BISHOPS LYNN	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
FREEBRIDGE LYNN	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
FREEBRIDGE LYNN	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
KINGS LYNN	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
KINGS LYNN	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
KINGS LYNN LYNN REGIS OR LYNN	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
LIN	Celia Fiennes	Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 1888).
LINNE	William Camden	Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
LINNUM EPISCOPI	William Camden	Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
LINNUM REGIS	William Camden	Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
LYN	Daniel Defoe	A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
LYNN	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
	Daniel Defoe	A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
	George Head	A Home Tour through the Manufacturing Districts of England in the Summer of 1835 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1836).
	John Wesley	The Journal of John Wesley (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2000).
	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
	Arthur Young	Tours in England and Wales, selected from the Annals of Agriculture (London: London School of Economics, 1932).
	Arthur Young	A Tour in Ireland, made in the years 1776, 1777, and 1778 (London: T. Cadell, 1780).
LYNN AND HUNSTANTON RAILWAY	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
LYNN AND SUTTON BRIDGE RAILWAY	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
LYNN EPISCOPI	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
LYNN KINGS LYNN OR LYNN REGIS	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
LYNN REGIS	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
	Daniel Defoe	A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
	Thomas Pennant	The Journey from Chester to London (London: Wilkie and Robinson, 1811).
	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
OLD LINNE	William Camden	Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.

Names for administrative units:

These names were used for units associated with Kings Lynn. Click on the links for details of the units and their names:

Name	Unit Type	Source
33UE	District/Unitary Authority	Census of Population (2001 Key Statistics)
E250765	Local Government District (MB)
E250778	Local Government District (RD)
E63009388	Built-up Area	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Built Up Areas (December 2024) Boundaries EW)
FREEBRIDGE	Constituency (PDivCon)	Great Britain Historical GIS Project
FREEBRIDGE LYNN	Ancient District (Hundred)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 653.
	Local Government District (RD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 659.
	Poor Law Union/Reg. District (RegD/PLU)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 656.
	Sanitary District (RSD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 657.
KINGS LYNN	1841 Occupation reporting area	1841 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Occupation Abstract'.
	Ancient District (Borough)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 654.
	Built-up Area	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Built Up Areas (December 2024) Boundaries EW)
	Constituency (PBCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	Constituency (CCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	Local Government District (MB)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 654.
	Local Government District (RD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 659.
	Parish-level Unit (CP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 370.
	Poor Law Union/Reg. District (RegD/PLU)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 656.
	Registration sub-District	Registrar General, Decennial Supplement (HM Stationery Office)
	Sanitary District (RSD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 657.
	Sanitary District (USD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 657.
	Urban Labour Market	Great Britain Historical GIS Project
KINGS LYNN AND WEST NORFOLK	District/Unitary Authority	Census of Population (2001 Key Statistics)
KINGS LYNN MIDDLE	Registration sub-District	1871 Census of England and Wales, Table 4, 'Area; Houses and Inhabitants, 1861 and 1871, in the Parishes and Places comprised in each Superintendent Registrar's District'.
KINGS LYNN NORTH	Registration sub-District	Registrar General, Decennial Supplement (HM Stationery Office)
KINGS LYNN SOUTH	Registration sub-District	Registrar General, Decennial Supplement (HM Stationery Office)
KINGS LYNN ST JOHN	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 370.
KINGS LYNN ST MARGARET	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 370.
KINGS LYNN ST MARGARET	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 370.
KINGS LYNN ST MARGARET WITH ST NICHOLAS	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 370.
KINGS LYNN ST MARGARET WITH ST NICHOLAS	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 370.
LYNN	Archdeaconry	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 781.
	Rural Deanery	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 781.
	Rural Deanery	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 781.
LYNN NORFOLK	Rural Deanery	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 781.
LYNN or LYNN REGIS	Constituency (PBCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
MARGARET ST	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	1831 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
NORFOLK KINGS LYNN	Constituency (PDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
NORFOLK KINGS LYNN	Constituency (CCon)	Boundary Commission for England, First Periodical Report (London: H.M.S.O., 1954)
NORFOLK NORTH WESTERN	Constituency (PDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
NORTH KINGS LYNN	Registration sub-District	1911 Census of England and Wales, Table 5, 'Registration Counties, Districts and Sub-districts with their constituent civil parishes. - Urban or Rural District in which each parish is situated; Area; families or separate occupiers, and population, 1901 and 1911; and population enumerated in Institutions, large establishments, and on vessels, &c., 1911'.
NORTH WESTERN NORFOLK	Constituency (PDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
SOUTH KINGS LYNN	Registration sub-District	1911 Census of England and Wales, Table 5, 'Registration Counties, Districts and Sub-districts with their constituent civil parishes. - Urban or Rural District in which each parish is situated; Area; families or separate occupiers, and population, 1901 and 1911; and population enumerated in Institutions, large establishments, and on vessels, &c., 1911'.
ST MARGARET	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	1901 Census of England and Wales, Table 12, 'Registration County, Districts, and Sub-Districts, with their Constituent Civil Parishes - Area; Houses and Population 1891 and 1901, and Separate Occupiers 1901'.

NB: These are all the names of all the administrative units which we have associated with Kings Lynn, and you must judge whether all or even any of them are variant names for the place. They may well include the names of other locations or areas:

For cities, the associated administrative units will usually include parishes, especially ecclesiastical parishes, one of whose names is the name of the city followed by a saint's dedication, with just the saint's name as another variant. Parish names will sometimes also include "places" within towns.
Districts usually contain more than one settlement, and some districts had their names changed to take the name of a completely different settlement. As we link each administrative unit to just one of our "places", usually the last place the unit was named after, in these cases the name for a completely different place will appear on this page.
Similarly, a unit may sometimes be named after a particular settlement it contains and sometimes to indicate its location within a higher level unit. This was very common among British parliamentary constituencies in rural areas, one name referring to their main town and another indicating that they were in, say, the southern part of the relevant county.

Every name listed here is linked to the particular historical source in which it appears, but we cannot claim that these are all the historical names of Kings Lynn, or that our references are to the first usage of the names. Similarly, we have tried to ensure that names included here are not transcription errors by ourselves, but it is possible they are the result of errors made when the historical sources were printed, or the result of visiting authors or census officials mis-hearing local names.