Barnstaple

//ˈbɑː(ɹ)nstəpəɫ// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A town and civil parish with a town council in North Devon district, Devon, England (OS grid ref SS5633).

Etymology

Formerly Barnstable; the name is first recorded in the 10th century and is believed to derive from the Old English bearde (“battle-axe”) and stapol (“pillar”). Not related to staple in the sense of a market, which arose later.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.