Calne: Spelling variants over time

Arms of the Guild and Stewards of Calne, from
The Visitation of Wiltshire 1623.

Place names, like surnames, have not been static over time. The spelling of most words has changed during the centuries, some more drastically than others (Cherhill was Ciriel in 1155 and Chirieli in 1198, Yatesbury was Getesbir in 1226). Some places, however, do return to older variants of their name, such as East and West Kennett. They were East and West Kennet (single 't'), the same as the local river, but changed back to an older spelling 'Kennett' in the 1970s.

Using The Place Names of Wiltshire by Gover, Mawer and Stenton, we find that the spelling (and presumably the pronunciation) of Calne has changed at least 10 times since it first entered written history. This can only ever include variants that have been written down, have survived, and then subsequently found - there may have been many more variants, sometimes more clearly heard in pronounciations (something which even current residents of Calne known about).

Variant	Earliest Date	Source
Calne	955	Cartularium Saxonicum, ed. W. de Gray Birch, 3 vols., London 1885-93.
æt Cálne	978	Anglo Saxon Chronicle
et Calnæ	997	Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, ed. J. M. Kemble, 6 vols., London 1839-48.
Cauna, Caune	1086	Domesday Book
Calna	1091	Vetus registrum Sarisberiense alias dictum Registrum S. Osmundi, Episcopi (Rolls Series), 2 vols., 1883-84.
Kalne	1158	Report on Manuscripts in Various Collections, 8 vols. (Historical Manuscripts Commission), 1901-23
Calne	1198	Placitorum Abbrevatio (Record Commission), London 1811.
Kaune	1236	Calendar of Close Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office
Calle al. Calne	1460	Calendar of Patent Rolls (Public Record Office)
Cawne	1556	Feet of Fines, 1273-1760 (unpublished) in the Public Record Office.
Cawen	t. Eliz (1558-1603)	Calendar of Proceedings in Chancery in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, ed. J. Bayley, 3 vols. (Record Commission), London 1827-32.
Caln	1588	Wiltshire Notes and Queries, 8 vols., 1893
Cawlne	1588	MS Collections of John Sadler in Wilts Museum at Devizes.
Cane	1672	Admission to the College of St John the Evangelist, 4 vols., Cambridge 1882-1931
Caln and Calne	1753	Britannia Depicta road atlas featured both 'Caln' and 'Calne' on the same page, leading me to think that 'Caln' was the abbraviated version. It was printed by Emanuel Bowen and John Owen's firm and is based from earlier work by John Ogilby (c. late 1600s).

What we can see though is that while the spelling of Calne has changed throughout history, it has tended to return back to being spelled 'Calne'. Considering that the historical record for the town is over 1000 years, it has remained quite stable. However, we can see that the 1500s saw a few variants: Cawne, Cawen, Caln, Cawlne, with Caln and Cawlne both being written in 1588.

With the onset of modern English and the prevealence of writing as a form of communication, there was greater stability in spelling and we stuck with Calne, while our Town Twin in Pennsylvania uses the variant Caln.

References: 

Gover, J., Mawer, A. and Stenton, F. (1970). The place-names of Wiltshire. Cambridge: At the University Press.

Placenames.org.uk. (2017). The Historical Gazetteer of England's Place-names. [online] Available at: http://placenames.org.uk/browse/mads/epns-deep-16-b-subparish-000188 [Accessed 12 Sep. 2017].