'Hammersmith' may mean a place with a hammer smithy, or forge.
It is first recorded as Hamersmyth in 1294, then Hameresmithe in 1312, and nobody is quite sure of its origin. In 1839 Thomas Faulkner derived it from ham and hythe, after the riverside; in 1922 Gover proposed a man called Heahmaer or Hæmar and a word for the meeting of two rivers, where Hammersmith Creek joined the Thames. Others suggest a haven belonging to Hammoder.