[5] The first element may also be *hū-, with connotations of "seethe, boil, soak", of which a variant forms the name of the adjoining River Hull.

[5] The estuary appears in some Latin sources as Abus (A name used by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene).

This is possibly a Latinisation of the Celtic form Aber (Welsh for river mouth or estuary) but is erroneously given as a name for both the Humber and The Ouse as one continuous watercourse.

[7] Although it is now an estuary its entire length, the Humber had a much longer freshwater course during the Ice Age, extending across Doggerland, which is now submerged beneath the North Sea.

Abi (The Abus river, Ancient Greek: Ἄβος) in Ptolemy's Geographia, discharging into the German Ocean (the North Sea) south of Ocelum Promontorium (Spurn Head).

Fort Paull is further upstream, a Napoleonic-era emplacement replaced in the early 20th century by Stallingborough Battery opposite Sunk Island.

[18] The line of the bridge is similar to an ancient ferry route from Hessle to Barton upon Humber, which is noted in the Domesday Book and in a charter of 1281.

The feat in August 2005 was attempted to raise cash and awareness for the medical research charity, DebRA.

[21] He replicated this achievement on the television programme Top Gear (Series 10 Episode 6) when he beat James May who drove an Alfa Romeo 159 around the inland part of the estuary in a race without using the Humber Bridge.

[24] In 2019, Hull-based competitive open water swimmer Richard Royal became the first person to attempt and complete a two-way swim across the estuary,[25] beginning and finishing at Hessle foreshore, with Barton on the south bank as the mid-way point, fulfilling the land-to-land criteria, covering a total of 4,085 m (4,467 yd).

The Humber is home both to resident fish and those returning from the sea to their spawning grounds in Yorkshire,[27] Lincolnshire and Derbyshire.

Salmon, sole, cod, eel, flounder, plaice, sprat, lamprey and sand goby have all been caught within the estuary.