Eeesh that's a lot of Stoke. Place names in Britain are extremely arbitrary and I wonder how this impacts. Some of these don't feel quite "right". Here's an i

Eeesh that's a lot of Stoke. Place names in Britain are extremely arbitrary and I wonder how this impacts. Some of these don't feel quite "right". Here's an interesting story that explains my thinking: There's an area of Salford called Irlams o'th Height. This used to be called the Height as it was elevated over the Irwell. There was a family in the 18th century who owned a pub on the Height. This was the Irlam family. The pub, officially the Park Horse, was locally known as "Irlam's". It was literally "Irlam's on the Height". As the area grew, especially during the industrial revolution, the entire area was just called "Irlam's on the Height". This has continued to this day - nobody really questions it. There's also an area in Salford called Irlam. This is on the opposite side of Salford and has nothing to do with Irlam's pub (perhaps except that may be where the family name originated). The area was called Irwellham - a hamlet on the river Irwell. Salford, to finish, I think is naturally due to a ford. Probably a ford in one of the rivers, perhaps the Irwell again, since Salford emcompassed much of what is now Greater Manchester. Long winded story out of the way, to generate British sounding names, take local natural landmarks/typically British surnames and suffix with "ham", "ton", "chester". Must warn - many will probably exist!