[QUOTE=chowder]
So what would you have expected them to call the battle?
“The Battle of that place near Hastings where 'arry got his mince pie shot out wiv an arrer”
[/QUOTE]
They probably called it the “Battle of Hastings” because the “Battle of Battle” sounds stupid.
If they were in such a hurry to name it then they could have called it The Haste of Battle.
[QUOTE=Oy!]
Don’t be so sure. They were, after all, French. 
[/QUOTE]
Doesn’t sound very surrender-monkeyish to me.
Oh, the French aren’t known in the long haul for being surrenderers. The French are known for being obnoxious gits. If you live an an Anglo-centric country, that is. Even if the French were key to your getting and keeping your independence from that country and gave you a really nifty statue and have been allied with you in two world wars and in the entire last century.