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== Toponymy ==
The origin of the modern name "Lichfield" is twofold. At [[Wall, Staffordshire|Wall]], {{convert|3.5|km|mi|abbr=on}} south of the current city, there was a [[Romano-British culture|Romano-British]] village, [[Letocetum]], a [[Common Brittonic]] place name meaning "Greywood"; "[[grey]]" perhaps referring to varieties of tree prominent in the landscape, such as [[ash tree|ash]] and [[elm]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Lichfield: The place and street names, population and boundaries ', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14: Lichfield|year=1990|pages=37–42|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42340|access-date=22 November 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526054813/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42340|archive-date=26 May 2011|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Staffordshire/Lichfield |title=Lichfield |work=Key to English Place Names |publisher=Institute for Name Studies, [[University of Nottingham]] |access-date=12 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304063744/http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Staffordshire/Lichfield |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> This passed into [[Old English]] as ''Lyccid'',<ref name=Delamarre>{{cite book|last=Delamarre|first=Xavier|title=Noms de lieux celtiques de l'europe ancienne (-500/+500): Dictionnaire|year=2012|publisher=Éditions Errance|location=Arles, France|isbn=978-2-87772-483-8|page=175}}</ref> cf. {{lang-owl|Luitcoyt}},<ref name=Sims>{{cite book|title=Britain 400–600: Language and History|year=1990|publisher=Carl Winter Universitätsverlag|location=Heidelberg|isbn=3-533-04271-5|page=260|author=Patrick Sims-Williams|author-link=Dating the Transition to Neo-Brittonic: Phonology and History, 400-600|editor=Alfred Bammesberger|chapter=2}}</ref> to which was appended {{lang-ang|feld}} "open country". This word {{lang|ang|Lyccidfeld}} is the origin of the word "Lichfield".<ref name=Delamarre /> The [[Medieval Latin]] form "Licitfelda" is recorded c. 710 – c. 720.<ref>Hanks, Patrick; Hodges, Flavia (2002). ''The Oxford Names Companion''. Oxford University Press; p. 1107. {{ISBN|0198605617}}</ref>
The earliest record of the name is when Chad (later Saint Chad) moves from York to Lichfield in 669. "Chad was made Bishop of the Mercians immediately after his deposition; Wilfred gave him the place (locus) at Lichfield (Onlicitfelda)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sargent |first=Andrew |title=Lichfield and the Lands of St Chad |date=2020 |publisher=University of Hertfordshire Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-912260-24-9 |pages=Page 90 |language=English}}</ref>
In the Lastingham Narrative (LN) of the same time. is stated that Chad acquired Licidfelth as his episcopal seat (sedes episcolpalem).<ref>Lastingham Narrative section of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People by the Venerable Bede, 731 CE</ref>
Popular etymology has it that a thousand Christians were martyred in Lichfield around AD 300 during the reign of [[Diocletian]] and that the name Lichfield actually means "field of the dead" (see ''[[lich]]''). There is no evidence to support this legend, as with many [[Folk etymology|folk etymologies]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42340|title=Explaining the origin of the 'field of the dead' legend|publisher=British History Online|access-date=20 November 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526054813/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42340|archive-date=26 May 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>
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