A George III short staff, dated 1795, inscribed G.R above the Arms of the City of Oxford, (a red ox fording water) / OXON. / 1795 / No. 22., 66cm longThe device on the shield, which appears on a fourteenth-century seal, not only expresses the name, but also hints at its origin. An alternative to the theory that the place grew up around a ford for oxen is that the syllable 'ox' is a variant of the Celtic word for water.