The Ainsty is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (in the form "Ainestig"), when it was a wapentake of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was named from Ainsty Cliff at Bilbrough, presumably the original meeting place of the wapentake. Ainsty Cliff was itself named from a small narrow path which led from Steeton Farm over Ainsty Cliff to Bilbrough. The word Ainsty is from Old English "ān stiga", meaning "one-man path" or "narrow path", which became "einstigi" in Old Norse.