the name todmorden first appears in 1641. the town had earlier been called tottemerden, totmardene, totmereden or totmerden. the generally accepted meaning of the name is totta's boundary-valley, probably a reference to the valley running north-west from the town. alternative suggestions have been proposed, such as the speculation "maybe fancifully" that the name derives from two words for death: "tod" and "mor" (as in "mort"), meaning "death-death-wood", or that the name meant "marshy home of the fox", from the old english.