"(H)ambretone", a place-name reflected now both in Kirk Hammerton ('Hammerton with the church', from Old Norse "kirkja" 'church') and in Green Hammerton ('Hammerton with the green', from Middle English "grene"), is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086.The name seems to derive from the Old English plant-name "hamor" (whose meaning is not certain but might include hammer-sedge or pellitory of the wall) + "tūn" 'settlement, farm, estate'.