Red Lion (inn)

Pub names are used to identify and differentiate pubs in the United Kingdom. Many pubs are centuries old, from a time when their customers were often illiterate, but could recognise pictorial signs. Pub names have a variety of origins, from objects used as simple identification marks to the coats of arms of kings or local aristocrats and landowners. Other names come from historic events, livery companies, and occupations or craftsmen's guilds.

Although the word The appears on much pub signage, it is not considered to be an important part of the name, and is therefore ignored in the following examples. The word Ye is likewise ignored as it is only an archaic spelling of The. The Y represents a now obsolete character (þ, the letter Thorn, still used in Icelandic) for the th sound and looked rather like a blackletter y. It was never pronounced with a y sound. Similarly, other archaic spellings such as "olde worlde" are not distinguished below.

Names like Fox and Hounds, Dog and Duck, Dog and Gun, etc., refer to hunting. Animal names coupled with colours, such as White Hart and Red Lion, are often heraldic. A white hart featured as the badge of King Richard II, while a red lion was the badge of John of Gaunt and a blue boar of the Earls of Oxford.

Individual animals once famous in a particular locality sometimes give their names to pubs:

Pubs are occasionally named after racehorses, although the connection may not be readily apparent, and the horse no longer famous. These include: Dr Syntax (), Alice Hawthorn (Nun Monkton), Golden Miller (Longstowe), Slow and Easy (), Windmill (Tabley), Happy Man (Manchester), Spinner and Bergamot (Northwich, Cheshire), and The Flying Childers (Stanton in Peak, Derbyshire).

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