  In English place name analysis, meanings are often derived from the
resemblance of roots in place names to topographical features, proper names
and/or habitation terms in one of the languages that have had an influence on
English place names. The problem here is that it is sometimes difficult to
determine the base language to use to interpret the roots. The purpose of this
paper is to stochastically determine the resemblance between 18799 English
place names and 84687 place names from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Ancient Rome. Each English
place name is ranked according to the extent to which it resembles place names
from the other countries, and this provides a basis for determining the likely
language to use to interpret the place name. A number of observations can be
made using the ranking provided. In particular, it is found that `Harlington'
is the most archetypically English place name in the English sample, and `Anna'
is the least. Furthermore, it is found that the place names in the non-English
datasets are most similar to Norwegian place names and least similar to Welsh
place names.
