Description
Group A runes were most common in Viking Age Denmark
Gaut
Old Norse Gautr (m.)
Gautr and the related Gauti are short forms of names in Gaut- or -gautr, or an original byname meaning ‘man from Gautland’. This region comprises the provinces now known as Östergötland and Västergötland in southern Sweden, and is the homeland of the Geats in the Old English poem Beowulf.
Gautr is recorded in several Swedish and Norwegian runic inscriptions and is also the name of a rune-carver in the Isle of Man. The name appears in two inscriptions there; on the runic cross from Kirk Michael it is (boastfully but erroneously) claimed that ‘Gautr made this and all in Man’.
Old Norse Name
- Gautr
Anglicised Name
- Gaut
Gender
- Male
Ascribed Culture
Collection
- Viking Names
Keywords
- byname, Isle of Man, male_name, Old English, personal-name, Sweden
Further information
References
Lena Peterson, Nordiskt runnamnslexikon: Femte, reviderade utgåvan. Uppsala: Institutet för språk och folkminnen (2007), p. 76.
Gillian Fellows Jensen, Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag (1968), p. 98.
E.H. Lind, Norsk-isländska dopnamn ock fingerade namn från medeltiden. Uppsala: A.B. Lundequistska Bokhandel (1915), cols 306-309.