How English is YOUR birthplace? Scientists reveal the place names that are the most 'archetypal English' – so does yours make the list?

England is known for its eccentric place names, from 'Matching Tye' to 'Fingringhoe' and 'Upton Snodsbury'.

But a new AI study now reveals the most English-sounding locations in the country – and they certainly conjure up images of cricket and afternoon tea.

The research shows that 'Harlington', a district of London, is the most archetypal English place name, along with 'Widdington' in Essex and 'Colworth' in West Sussex.

In contrast, 'Anna', a settlement in Hampshire, is the least English-sounding, along with 'Belgravia' in London and 'Moira' in Leicestershire.

Although AI was used to determine the linguistic basis of English place names, and not the meaning, the results could reveal more about the history of the locations.

The new study was conducted by Dr. Michael Dalvean, an expert in computational linguistics at the University of Western Australia.

“Each English place name is ranked according to how similar it is to place names from the other countries,” he said in his article.

'This provides a basis for determining the likely language to be used to interpret the place name.'

Dr. Dalvean used machine learning, a specific subset of AI that allows systems to learn and reach informed conclusions.

To determine their Englishness, the AI ​​compared 18,799 English place names with 84,687 place names from 10 other European locations: France, Germany, Ancient Rome, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

These ten places are important locations in Europe and have historically had 'a high degree of linguistic and cultural influence on England', Dr Dalvean said.

“The idea is to rank each individual English place name in terms of how similar it is to the place names of England, as opposed to the place names of the other ten European countries,” he said.

The results showed that Harlington in London sounded the most English, followed by Widdington in Essex, Colworth in West Sussex and Beckington in Somerset.

In the photo the Grade II listed parish church, one of the oldest listed buildings in Harlington, now part of Greater London

Many of the most archetypically English-sounding places in England have the element '-ton', which comes from the Anglo-Saxon '-tun', meaning 'enclosed space'. Pictured is St Michael's Church in Didlington, Norfolk

Also in the top 10 were Didlington in Norfolk, Toddington in Bedfordshire, Lowthorpe in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Tiddington in Warwickshire, Bedlington in Northumberland and Ridlington, Rutland.

Interestingly, much of the top 10 contained the element '-ton', which comes from the Anglo-Saxon '-tun', meaning an 'enclosed space' – although the AI ​​didn't specifically look for this element.

In contrast, the least English-sounding place name in England is Anna, the name of a valley and part of the village of Upper Clatford in Hampshire.

Also named 'least English sounding' by the AI ​​were Danum in Doncaster, Menna in Cornwall, Moira in Leicestershire, Arun in West Sussex, Belgravia in London, Lamanva, also in Cornwall, and Laira and Lana, both in Devon.

The other European countries had influence when these English places were originally named – indicating that their first settlers came from the other European countries.

Overall, there was a greater similarity between English place names and those of Scotland, Ireland, France, the Netherlands and Germany than the similarity with any Scandinavian place names.

Belgravia in London (pictured) was determined to be one of the least English-sounding place names in England

The Anglo-Saxons ruled Britain from 500 years until 1066, when they were conquered by the Normans at the Battle of Hastings (pictured here)

'This is an interesting observation given the significant influx of Scandinavian settlers to England during the period when Anglo-Saxon place names were being applied to English places,' said Dr Dalvean.

The results also suggested that the greater the number of vowels divided by the length of a place name, the more likely it is to be a Roman place name, as opposed to an English one.

Because in many cases there are no written records, it can be difficult to determine the true original meaning of words, including place names.

However, the AI ​​will help experts determine at least the linguistic origins of place names “with a high degree of probability,” Dr. Dalvean said.

This could shed more light on the earliest history of English towns and cities, many of which predate the birth of Jesus Christ

The new study has been published as a pre-print, meaning it has yet to be peer-reviewed, on the open-access repository arxiv.