This snippet from the very useful Old Hants Gazetteer shows how a placename can become a family name and how this can help trace geographic origins.

1. Dippenhall was a manor adjacent to the Crondall Hundred (one of 5) these references show that various old spellings of the place name referenced in the Gazetteer show a likely connection between the place and the origin of the place name.
2. Our interest here is a number of Intriguing Connections with our Dipnall family history and One-Name Study project, early days but capturing these snippets using your own Intriguing Connections Site for your project is really very handy…checkout more on how you can use for your own project on Intriguing Family History, if you are interested
3. The references on the Gazetteer re Dippenhall can be seen here, and on the map you can see the locations are still marked on two existing roads both Crondall and Dippenhall on the modern maps. The satellite view makes the old site of Dippenhall Manor visible from the aerial view, and using Google Street view, you can even meander along the lane without driving there…
4. We are looking at how we can combine the mapping place names database with the historical name references and variances cross referenced to the Gazette sources. Aim being with a community of like-minded enthusiasts to gradually crowd source the important history of place names and make more and more available via the modern Google and Open Map systems.
5. Dipnoll and Dipnall are therefore quite likely local variants. The sources here go back to 1607, but the name Dipnall with other spellings whilst rare appears in other locations much later on, spellings for example include Dippnall Dipnell. Whilst they are much later we are researching the connection and using the maps on Dipnall to map all the cluster of place name variants as well as family name variants, to see what insights we can reveal…