Service to check historic area names

[ChinusGomes]

Noobie here looking for advice. I want to know how you would identify how a city has expanded and collapsed with time (if cities do even shrink?). I assume that as settlements form and expand, their name and reach must logically expand too. It seems likely to me that as group's or clusters of settlements expands, a series of small villages and Hamlet's might become absorbed into nearby cities. Is the correct, and if so is there a way to determine how this worked for a given area? I live in the UK so often cities border each other, and I'm keen to see how the cities interact with each other over time. Hope that makes sense.