Community Assembly of Hackney

The Community Assembly of Hackney is located a district in East London, England, forming around two-thirds of the area of the modern London Borough of Hackney, to which it gives its name.

The first surviving records of the place name are Hakney (1231) and Hakeneye (1242 and 1294). The name is Old English, but the meaning is not certain. It seems clear however that the ' ey ' element refers to an island or a raised or otherwise dry area in marshland. The term ' island ' in this context could also mean land situated between two streams.

The Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names examined various interpretations of the place name and favoured the interpretation that Hackney means 'Haka's island' , with ' haka ' being a notable local person The Dictionary suggests that the ' hack ' element may also derive from: The Old English ' Haecc ' meaning ' a hatch ' – an entrance to a woodland or common or alternatively from ' Haca ' meaning a hook, and in this context, a bend of the river or the biblical scholar, James Rendel Harris, theorised that ' hack ' means ' woodpecker '.