807: English Counties (sussex, suffolk, and others) Feb 22, 2017

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The names of the English counties, 'Sussex', 'Essex', 'Wessex' and former 'Middlesex' all denote the relative geography of their locations across southern England. It isn't too difficult to spot the 'west' in 'Wessex', the 'east' in 'Essex' nor especially the 'middle' in 'Middlesex'. There is, in addition to 'Sussex', the county, 'Suffolk' and with that 'Norfolk' (though no 'Norsex') that also have this 'south' and 'north' in the names. With 'Suffolk', this just means, "south folk", and similarly to the way many other peoples name their lands, it is just named after the word for 'people'. You can see more about other place-names here: origins of place-names. The counties ending in '-sex' are not an exception to this rule, and that ending comes from the word for 'Saxon', 'Seaxe'. For more on 'Saxon', see this link: Etymology of 'Saxon'.

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