 The tree is named for the Channel Island of Guernsey (Sarnia was the Roman name for Guernsey), where it may have originated.A similar tree is found along the Brittany coast, referred to in several 18th and 19th century French treatises as "l'Orme male"  owing to its phallic resemblance; it is still sometimes referred to as the Male Elm in Guernsey, although no mature trees survive there either.The synonym Wheatley Elm was derived from a tree planted at Wheatley Park, Doncaster, where it was introduced and propagated by Sir William Cooke in the early 19th century.