The Naming of England
George T. Beech traces the origins of the word England to the period 1014 to 1035 and suggests how and why it came to be the recognized term for the country.
Names are as essential to the identity of countries as they are to individuals, and country names are an indispensable part of the collective identity of the people. Could one conceive of the English people without England? That name is part of its very being. In a literal sense England is simply the name of the land, the country, but in the minds and language of the English it has long taken on additional meanings. An example is Rupert Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’, written prior to his military service and death in the First World War. (If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field/That is for ever England.) For Brooke, England was not only his home but also a source of his life, his intellect, his appreciation of beauty. It is difficult to imagine a more emotional evocation of one’s attachment to one’s own country.
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