What is today referred to as the Icknield Street road acquired the name "Ryknild Street" during the 12th century, when it was named by Ranulf Higdon, a monk of Chester writing in 1344 in his "Polychronicon". Higdon gives the name as Rikenild Strete, which, he says, tends from the south-west to the north, and begins at St. David's in Wales and continues across England to the mouth of the Tyne, passing Worcester, Droitwich, Birmingham, Lichfield, Derby, and Chesterfield. It has borne that name, or Rigning, Reenald or Rignall, from early times. In three of the four MSS of Higdon the name is given as Rikenilde or Rikenyldes, and in the fourth (which is said to be one of the earliest), Hikenil Street. Trevisa's English translation (1387) calls it Rykeneldes Strete. Harverfield, writing in the Victoria County History of Warwickshire doubted whether the road had any real and original right to either name, preferring Ryknild as no less correct (or no more incorrect), and being able to distinguish it from Icknield Street in Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It is now called Icknield or Ryknild "Street" to distinguish it from the older Icknield Way. In the 19th century it is also referred to in antiquarian literature with the spelling of "Rykneld Street".