Which 1086 survey already called the battle the Battle of Hastings?

The Domesday Book, compiled in 1086, already referred to the battle as “bellum Haestingas,” meaning the Battle of Hastings. That name was therefore in use within two decades of the Norman victory.

The survey was commissioned by William the Conqueror to record landholding, resources and obligations across much of England and parts of Wales. It was not a narrative history of 1066, but its terminology shows how the battle was being identified in official administrative writing.

The name can seem geographically odd because the battlefield was not inside the modern town of Hastings. The fighting took place roughly seven miles north-west of Hastings, near the present town of Battle in East Sussex. Medieval battles were often named after the nearest prominent settlement, landing place or political centre rather than the exact field.

Other names also circulated. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described the site using the “hoary apple tree,” while the later chronicler Orderic Vitalis used “Senlac.” Nevertheless, the Domesday wording helped establish Hastings as the familiar name.