The popular name of the codex is the Caedmon manuscript, after an early theory that the poems it contains might be the work of Caedmon; the name has stuck even though the theory is no longer considered credible. In more recent works it is commonly referred to either by its Bodleian designation MS Junius 11, or as the Junius manuscript or Codex Junius; 'Junius' here is Franciscus Junius, who published the first edition of its contents in 1655.

It has been established on palaeographical grounds that compilation of the manuscript began c. AD 1000. Recent work has suggested an earlier, narr