Cheddar

The cheese is named for a gorge village, not a brand.

The cheese takes its name from Cheddar in Somerset, where it was made and matured, including in the local caves. The village name then became a generic English cheese word.

The most copied cheese name in the world belongs to one small Somerset village.

Cheese was matured in the caves of Cheddar Gorge and traded at the village market by the sixteenth century, and the cheddaring step still carries the name. The bare word is unprotected and the cheese is made on every continent, though West Country Farmhouse Cheddar holds a European protected designation.