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School of English

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Rebecca Gregory

Assistant Professor in Historical Linguistics and Onomastics, Faculty of Arts

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Biography

PhD English; MA Viking and Anglo-Saxon Studies; BA English

PGCHE; FHEA

My research addresses historical language and literature, especially as it relates to the names of people and places. I have particular interests in historical semantics, and on the influence of Scandinavian settlement in the early medieval period on the language and culture of England.

My teaching expertise spans across medieval languages and literature, with forays into more modern language and literature as it relates to representations of space and place. I teach and supervise at undergraduate, PGT and doctoral levels, and have particular interest in teaching technology and in online and distance teaching and learning.

Before joining ֲý full-time in 2019, I was Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Glasgow. I have also worked on research projects based at King's College London, the University of Leicester, and the Institute for Name-Studies here in ֲý.

I was educated at the ֲý: BA English, 2012; MA Viking & Anglo-Saxon Studies (Institute for Name-Studies Research Studentship), 2013; PhD English (Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Studentship), 2016.

Expertise Summary

English place-names; personal names; names in fiction; historical semantics; history of English.

Teaching Summary

My teaching draws on my own areas of research interest in names and naming, Old English language and literature, and construction and perception of place. I am currently Deputy Director of Education… read more

Research Summary

I am currently working on a new edition of Viking ֲýshire for Five Leaves Press, incorporating new and emerging evidence for Scandinavian presence and influence in the East Midlands.

Selected Publications

  • REBECCA GREGORY, 2026. The deviant dead in collective memory: place-names and outcasts in the English landscape. In: JAN ČERMÁK and LUCIE DOLEŽALOVÁ, eds., What Words Remember, and Other Stories Brepols. (In Press.)
  • REBECCA GREGORY, 2026. Settlement names in ֲýshire. In: PAUL CAVILL, ed., ֲýshire Place-Names English Place-Name Society. (In Press.)
  • REBECCA GREGORY, 2023. Building the conomasticon: names and naming in fictional worlds. In: ISRAEL NOLETTO, JESSICA NORLEDGE and PETER STOCKWELL, eds., Reading Fictional Languages Edinburgh University Press. 179-194
  • GREGORY, R., NORLEDGE, J., STOCKWELL, P. and SZUDARSKI, P., 2022. Routledge.

I welcome students who are interesting in pursuing research on English place-names, on names in fiction, on Old English language and / or literature, and on the history of the English language.

Current research students:

(M4C-funded): A Land of Ice and Fire: An Ecocritical Reading of the Landscapes of Islendingasogur

Ben Marshall (M4C-funded): Wild Animals in East Midlands Place-Names

My teaching draws on my own areas of research interest in names and naming, Old English language and literature, and construction and perception of place. I am currently Deputy Director of Education and Student Experience in the School of English, and convene the Undergraduate Dissertation.

Undergraduate modules taught

Beginnings of English (level 1); Writing and Place (level 1); Names and Identities (level 2); Old English: Reflection and Lament (level 2); English Place-Names (level 3); Dissertation (level 3).

Postgraduate modules taught

English Field-Names; The Languages of English Place-Names; Old English Language; Place-Names and the English Landscape; Saints and Heroes in Old English Poetry; Vikings in the East Midlands; Dissertation.

Past Research

In 2025-6 I was Co-I on the IAA-funded '' project, bringing research on the Viking Age to young people through the Derbyshire Scouts Archaeology Badge.

  • REBECCA GREGORY, 2026. The deviant dead in collective memory: place-names and outcasts in the English landscape. In: JAN ČERMÁK and LUCIE DOLEŽALOVÁ, eds., What Words Remember, and Other Stories Brepols. (In Press.)
  • REBECCA GREGORY, 2026. Settlement names in ֲýshire. In: PAUL CAVILL, ed., ֲýshire Place-Names English Place-Name Society. (In Press.)
  • REBECCA GREGORY, 2023. Building the conomasticon: names and naming in fictional worlds. In: ISRAEL NOLETTO, JESSICA NORLEDGE and PETER STOCKWELL, eds., Reading Fictional Languages Edinburgh University Press. 179-194
  • GREGORY, R., NORLEDGE, J., STOCKWELL, P. and SZUDARSKI, P., 2022. Routledge.
  • PAUL CAVILL and REBECCA GREGORY, 2018. A New Dictionary of English Field-Names English Place-Name Society.
  • RICHARD JONES, REBECCA GREGORY, SUSAN KILBY and BENJAMIN PEARS, 2017. Living with a trespasser: riparian names and medieval settlement on the River Trent floodplain Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies. 7, 33-64
  • REBECCA GREGORY, 2017. Viking ֲýshire Five Leaves Publications.
  • REBECCA GREGORY, 2016. Review of Peter J. Spackman, An A–Z of 1001 Field-Names and their Interpretation Journal of the English Place-Name Society. 48, 125–27
  • REBECCA GREGORY, 2015. Some ֲýshire dead men Nomina. 38,

School of English

Trent Building
The ֲý
University Park, ֲý NG7 2RD

telephone: +44 (0) 115 951 5900
email: english-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk