| badmintonThe sport is named for an English country house. | Badminton | From the place | Well attested |
| cheddarThe cheese is named for a gorge village, not a brand. | Cheddar | From its product | Well attested |
| sandwichThe meal is named for an earl. The earl is named for a town in Kent. | Sandwich | Indirect | Well attested |
| paisleyThe pattern is from Kashmir. The English name is a Scottish mill town. | Paisley | From its product | Well attested |
| bedlamChaos is a worn-down pronunciation of Bethlehem. | Bethlem Hospital | Historical name | Well attested |
| rugbyThe game is named for the school that played it. | Rugby | From the place | Well attested |
| tweedThe cloth may be a river, or a misread word for twill. | River Tweed | Disputed | Disputed |
| ascotThe tie is named for a Berkshire racecourse. | Ascot | From the place | Well attested |
| brummagemThe word for shoddy goods is a local pronunciation of Birmingham. | Birmingham | From the place | Well attested |
| guernseyThe neighbouring island got its own sweater. | Guernsey | From its product | Well attested |
| henleyThe shirt is named for a rowing regatta. | Henley-on-Thames | From the place | Well attested |
| jerseyThe pullover is named for a Channel Island. | Jersey | From its product | Well attested |
| surreyThe carriage is named for an English county. | Surrey | From its product | Well attested |
| WensleydaleThe cheese is named for a Yorkshire dale. | Wensleydale | From its product | Well attested |
| worstedThe suiting yarn is named for a Norfolk village. | Worstead | From its product | Well attested |
| derbyThe hat and the local rivalry both come from an earl's racehorse prize. | Derby | Indirect | Well attested |
| balmoralTwo different garments are named for one royal estate in Aberdeenshire. | Balmoral Castle | From the place | Well attested |
| Bakewell tartThe almond tart is named for a Derbyshire town. | Bakewell | From its product | Well attested |
| Bath bunThe bun is named for a spa city. | Bath | From its product | Well attested |
| Bermuda grassThe grass is named for a stopover, not a home. | Bermuda | Historical name | Well attested |
| Bermuda shortsThe shorts are named for the island where they became formal wear. | Bermuda | From the place | Well attested |
| Bermuda TriangleA stretch of ocean is named for one of its corners. | Bermuda | From the place | Well attested |
| English muffinThe muffin is only English outside England. | England | From its people | Well attested |
| Epsom saltsThe bath salts are named for an English spa town. | Epsom | From its product | Well attested |
| Pontefract cakeThe liquorice sweet is named for a Yorkshire town. | Pontefract | From its product | Well attested |
| Portland cementThe cement is named for the stone it was said to resemble. | Isle of Portland | From its product | Well attested |
| Scotch tapeA brand name preserves an old slur about thrift. | Scotland | From its people | Well attested |
| Welsh rarebitThe dish is a joke at Wales's expense that outlived the joke. | Wales | From its people | Well attested |
| Yorkshire puddingThe pudding is named for an English county. | Yorkshire | From its product | Well attested |
| ascot tieA necktie named after a Berkshire village with a racecourse and a dress code. | Ascot | From the place | Well attested |
| Bakewell puddingThe town's pudding and the supermarket's tart are not the same thing. | Bakewell | From the place | Well attested |
| Bath chairThe wheelchair's ancestor is named for an English spa town's gouty visitors. | Bath | From the place | Well attested |
| Bedlington terrierIt is groomed to look like a lamb and was bred to kill things underground. | Bedlington | From the place | Well attested |
| Belfast sinkBelfast had water to spare; London did not, and their sinks differ by one hole. | Belfast | From the place | Probable |
| Bovey coalA Devon town named a coal too young and too smoky to be much good. | Bovey Tracey | From its product | Probable |
| Bristol soundJournalists coined trip hop for it; the musicians preferred the city's name. | Bristol | From the place | Probable |
| carry coals to NewcastleThe Tyne shipped coal south for centuries; nobody needed anyone to bring some. | Newcastle upon Tyne | From the place | Well attested |
| Cheddar cheeseThe most copied cheese name in the world belongs to one small Somerset village. | Cheddar | From the place | Well attested |
| cherry Bakewell tartBakewell's own specialty is a different pudding; the iced tart is an upstart. | Bakewell | From the place | Probable |
| Cheshire catThe grin was proverbial in England decades before Lewis Carroll borrowed it. | Cheshire | From the place | Well attested |
| Chorleywood processMost British supermarket bread comes from a method named after a commuter village. | Chorleywood | From the place | Well attested |
| Covent Garden agueGeorgian London named a venereal disease after a single square. | Covent Garden | From the place | Probable |
| English CarrierThe pigeon called Carrier is the one that no longer carries anything. | England | From its people | Well attested |
| English cocker spanielIn England it is just a cocker spaniel; Americans added the country. | England | From its people | Probable |
| English hornNeither English nor a horn. | England | Disputed | Disputed |
| English setter"Setter" is no temperament: the dog sat so a net could be thrown over the birds. | England | From its people | Well attested |
| English ShepherdThe English Shepherd is an American breed named for its ancestors' homeland. | England | From its people | Probable |
| English sparrowNative across Eurasia; Americans named it for the country that shipped it. | England | From its people | Well attested |
| Frogmore stewNamed for a South Carolina community you will struggle to find on a map. | Frogmore | From the place | Probable |
| Highland gamesThe caber toss is scored on accuracy, not on distance. | Scottish Highlands | From the place | Well attested |
| lie back and think of EnglandThe famous Victorian diary behind the phrase has never been produced. | England | From the place | Probable |
| like Blackpool IlluminationsAn entire seaside light festival, reduced to a simile for a red face. | Blackpool | From the place | Probable |
| Lincolnshire spinachEngland's older spinach survives as a market-stall crop in one county. | Lincolnshire | From the place | Probable |
| Liverpool soundMerseybeat by another name, exported worldwide by four of its practitioners. | Liverpool | From the place | Probable |
| London broilOrder London broil in London and nobody will know what you are asking for. | London | From the place | Probable |
| Mersey soundA river named the sound of Liverpool, then named a bestselling poetry book. | River Mersey | From the place | Well attested |
| Oxford commaA university press's house style became a transatlantic identity badge. | Oxford | Indirect | Well attested |
| Piltdown ManA human skull, an orangutan jaw, and forty years of British paleontology. | Piltdown | From the place | Well attested |
| plain as Dunstable highwayAn old proverb measures plainness against a dead straight Roman road. | Dunstable | From the place | Probable |
| plain DunstableThe plainest thing in Tudor England was the road to Dunstable. | Dunstable | From the place | Probable |
| pomfret cakePomfret is the old English name for Pontefract; Shakespeare used it too. | Pontefract | Historical name | Well attested |
| Scunthorpe problemA whole class of software bug is named after a Lincolnshire town's spelling. | Scunthorpe | From the place | Well attested |
| sell coal to NewcastleThe Tyne imports coal now, which rather ruins the joke. | Newcastle upon Tyne | From the place | Well attested |
| sell coals to NewcastleNewcastle now imports its coal, which rather finishes the joke. | Newcastle upon Tyne | From the place | Well attested |
| send to CoventryNobody can prove why Coventry, of all places, became the silent treatment. | Coventry | From the place | Disputed |
| shipshape and Bristol fashionBristol's tide was so extreme that ships had to be packed to survive sitting on mud. | Bristol | From the place | Probable |
| shut one's eyes and think of EnglandThe Victorian diary everyone cites for this line has never once been produced. | England | From the place | Disputed |
| solid as the Rock of GibraltarAn insurance company built a global brand on one limestone headland. | Gibraltar | From the place | Well attested |
| think of EnglandThe famous quotation has no verified source and may never have been said. | England | From the place | Probable |
| Warrington hammerThe thin end exists so you can start a pin without flattening your fingers. | Warrington | From the place | Probable |
| Welsh corgiCorgi is Welsh too: cor plus ci, meaning dwarf dog. | Wales | From its people | Well attested |
| Aberdeen cutletVictorian slang for a fish dressed up with the name of a piece of meat. | Aberdeen | From the place | Well attested |
| Bankside ladyThe brothels behind the phrase were licensed by a bishop. | Bankside | From the place | Well attested |
| Blighty woundThe most desirable thing on the Western Front was a bullet in the right place. | United Kingdom | Indirect | Well attested |
| BloomsberriesA London district that was cheap and unfashionable gave its name to a byword for highbrow. | Bloomsbury | From the place | Well attested |
| BrexitThe word was modeled on Grexit, coined three months earlier for a departure that never happened. | United Kingdom | Indirect | Well attested |
| bromliteThe same mineral got two place names four years apart, and both are still in use. | Alston Moor | From the place | Well attested |
| BrummajemThe city's own pronunciation of its name became an English word for cheap fakes. | Birmingham | Indirect | Well attested |
| BuckieThe drink most associated with Scottish street drinking is made by Benedictine monks in Devon. | Buckfast Abbey | Indirect | Well attested |
| Camden benchIt is designed to defeat sleeping, skateboarding, drug dealing and graffiti at the same time. | London Borough of Camden | From the place | Well attested |
| Chelsea grinLondon's name for an injury that Glasgow is usually blamed for. | Chelsea | From the place | Probable |
| Chelsea smileThe same wound is named for Glasgow in Scotland and for Chelsea in London. | Chelsea | From the place | Probable |
| close one's eyes and think of EnglandThe journal everyone quotes for this phrase has never been produced. | England | From the place | Well attested |
| cornwalliteCornwall is one of the few places on earth that has lent its name to a mineral twice, in two languages. | Q23148 | From the place | Well attested |
| Covent Garden abbessLondon's sex trade had its own printed annual directory for nearly forty years. | Covent Garden | From the place | Well attested |
| Covent Garden nunThe joke of calling a prostitute a nun is older than the phrase by centuries. | Covent Garden | From the place | Well attested |
| DevonianThe period was named in the middle of a long and public argument between geologists. | Devon | From the place | Well attested |
| English breakfastOne phrase names both the fry-up and the tea you drink with it. | England | From the place | Well attested |
| English-cutTwo butchers can hand you the same rib in shapes that have nothing in common. | England | From the place | Probable |
| English saddleThe name exists only because Americans needed a word for the saddle that was not theirs. | England | From the place | Well attested |
| Essex girlEssex campaigners asked the Oxford English Dictionary to delete this phrase, and were refused. | Essex | From the place | Well attested |
| Essex manA newspaper column invented an entire social class in a single article. | Essex | From the place | Well attested |
| Fulham virginFulham was English slang for cheating long before it was slang for vice. | Fulham | From the place | Well attested |
| Glasgow kissA city's reputation for violence turned into a euphemism for the act itself. | Glasgow | From the place | Well attested |
| Glasgow magistrateTwo different stories explain this fish, and both involve a Glasgow official. | Glasgow | From the place | Well attested |
| Glasgow saladA joke about Scotland's diet, told in the form of a menu item. | Glasgow | From the place | Probable |
| Glasgow smileThe wound is named for the city whose gang reputation was built by a single novel. | Glasgow | From the place | Well attested |
| Haymarket wareThe street was London's best known market for sex, and the slang treated the women as stock. | Haymarket | From the place | Well attested |
| Hoxton finA London district became shorthand for a haircut, and then for a whole social type. | Hoxton | From the place | Well attested |
| kimblewickA Buckinghamshire hamlet gave its name to a bit and then lost control of the spelling. | Buckinghamshire | From its product | Probable |
| MadchesterTwo video directors invented the word to avoid naming the real city in a film script. | Manchester | Indirect | Well attested |
| MerseybeatThe genre borrowed its name from a local newspaper before the newspaper's name meant a genre. | River Mersey | From the place | Well attested |
| mulliteAlmost every porcelain cup and furnace brick in the world is held together by needles of a mineral named after a Hebridean island. | Isle of Mull | From the place | Well attested |
| NessieThe nickname came out of a newspaper's children's drawing competition, months after the first modern sighting. | Loch Ness | From the place | Well attested |
| Sloane RangerThe name is a pun welding a Chelsea square to a masked cowboy. | Sloane Square | From the place | Well attested |
| swim the ThamesIt is the answer to swimming the Tiber, with the current running the other way. | River Thames | From the place | Well attested |
| three stops short of DagenhamThe joke only works if you know the District line: three stops before Dagenham is Barking. | Barking | Indirect | Well attested |
| WhetstoneFor two decades the standard measure of computer speed was named after a Leicestershire village. | Whetstone | Indirect | Well attested |