The Bungay Book: Aunt Alice corresponds with Bill Warnock on how Bungay CT got its name.

Linke to the Bungay booklet here:

Here is the letter Aunt Alice sent me with the Bungay book. I scanned the whole booklet into a PDF but it's about 25 MB (60+ pages)

Here are some extracts:

How Bungay got its name. Bungay appears in the ancient records as Bunghee, Bungeia, Bonnagaie (Domesday) and Bongué. The late Professor W. W. Skeat, in "The place names of Suffolk", wrote: The prefix Bung is of Norse origin, from the Icelandic bungi, an elevation; Norwegian bunga, a little heap; closely allied to the Danish bunk, a rounded elevation; to which was added Eye or Island. Others have attributed the name to the Normans, who may have called it Le Bon Eye (the good Island) or Bongué (the good ford). Long before the Norman invasion, however, Bungay was an important place. Other derivations suggested have been Bunhaie (the good heights) and Buncae from the Saxon Bun, a maiden, and Cae, an enclosure. The most probable origin, however, is that supported by Professor Schram, an authority on place names. In his opinion, Bungay was originally Bun-incga-haye, the enclosure of Bonna's tribe, the Bun having come from Bonna, a well-knon Anglo-Saxon name.

The Black Dog. When a public water supply was provided, the pump was no longer required, and in 1932 it was replaced by an electric standard. On the pedestal of this is inserted a lead panel from the old pump, embossed with a pastoral scene and the initials "M.K. T.R. in 1812". (Matthias Kerrison, Town Reeve, who was responsible for the building of the pump.) Above the standard, as a weather vane, is the notorious Black Dog of Bungay, presented to the Town Reeve of that time, Dr. L. B. Crane. A curious tract in the British Museum, of which a copy is preserved in the Churchwarden's Book in St. Mary's, records that on a Sunday morning in August, 1577, during a terrible thunderstorm, the Black Dog, "or the divel in such a likeness", appeared in the church. A bronze plate at the base of the standard quotes one of the verses of a rhymed account of the storm:

All down the Church in midst of fire

The hellish monster flew;

And passing onwards to the Quire

He many people slew