Most Bradfordians know how their home city came by its name.

In Old English, it means the Broad Ford, a reference to a crossing of the Bradford Beck at Church Bank, where a settlement grew in Saxon times. The Domesday Book refers to it as ‘Bradeford.’

Place names are fascinating. You can learn so much about our history from them. They can tell us who first settled there, what geographical landmarks are prominent or about which notable events have happened there.

Take Keighley. It means the clearing - a ley - belonging to Cyhha’s farm; it was mentioned in the Domesday Book as ‘Cichhelai’. And Shipley comes from the Northumbrian dialect form of the Old English scip (sheep) and ‘ly’ the suffix meaning ‘open ground, such as meadow or arable land.’ It means ‘sheep-cleaning’ or ‘sheep pasture’.

Further along the Aire Valley, Shipley was first settled on the late Bronze Age and features in the Domesday Book as Scipelei(a).

These places are included in a fascinating new book which looks at the origin of the names of villages, towns and cities. The Place Names of Yorkshire by Yorkshire historian Paul Chrystal travels across the region, enlightening us as to the interesting and often quirky reasons that the names of settlements came to be.

‘The word ‘wic; has a Roman provenance; it means a settlement and originates in the Latin word vicus,’ which originally described a settlement which grew up around a military camp or fort but, in time, came to mean an ordinary village.’ writes Paul. ‘Examples include Eldwick, Heckmondwike, Wyke and East Keswick in Wharfedale.’

Paul scoured maps and atlases, gazetteers, local directories and books about the region to investigate the origin and meaning of words. For easy reference, places in the 150-word book are listed in alphabetical order.

He does not stop there, however. The book also looks at the origin of pubs, among them The Blue Pig in Fagley, where, interestingly, ‘the gents’ toilets are in Pudsey although the pub is in Fagley.’

The name comes from a man who was washing down the pig sties on the site and added a dolly blue, copying his mother when she did the weekly wash. ‘He decided to give the pigs a scrub at the same time,’ writes Paul.

The famously misspelt Busfeild Arms, in East Morton, was made for three cottages and was once The Hare and Hounds. It is also famous for its mention in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.

The book contains a useful guide to other geographical features of the region including dales in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, the rivers of Yorkshire, mountains in the Dales, Yorkshire waterfalls and lakes.

The most ancient names in Yorkshire tend to be attached to hills and rivers, says Paul. That is because from the earliest times such geographical features were important to the people who lived here; Ancient British languages can still be found in the names of hills and rivers - Pen-y-ghent, for example, where penno is the old British name for hill, and Rivers Nidd (old British for ‘brilliant’), Wharfe (winding) and Ure (strong).

The Romans left their mark all everywhere – any name with ‘caster’, ‘cester’ or ‘chester’ in it will more than likely once have been the site of a Roman or possibly Anglo-Saxon fort or camp.

*The Place Names of Yorkshire by Paul Chrystal is published by Stenlake, priced £15. Visit stenlake.co.uk