Viking Names
Bilsthorpe
Bilsthorpe, in the Bassetlaw Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Bildr and Old Norse þorp ‘a secondary settlement, a dependent outlying farmstead or hamlet’.
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Viking Names
Svarri
The Old Norse male byname Svarri ‘capable, energetic man’ is a rare name; it is recorded once in Norway. The name is the first element in Swarby, Lincolnshire.
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Viking Names
Gunnolf
Gunnólfr is a common name throughout Scandinavia. Although it is not well attested in the Icelandic sagas, there are many instances of the personal name in medieval Scandinavian documents as well as in the Icelandic quasi-historical text Landnámabók ‘The Book of Settlements’, which recounts the settlement of Iceland. The personal name also occurs in its Old East Norse form, Gunnulf, as the first element in the place-name Gonalston, Nottinghamshire.
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Viking Names
Thorstein
Þorsteinn is a Old Norse male personal name from Þór- ‘the god’s name Þórr’ and -steinn ‘stone’. The name was very common in Norway and Iceland throughout the medieval period. It was also found in Sweden and Denmark, including in the runic form þurstin. Additionally Þorsteinn is the most common name of Scandinavian origin in Normandy. The personal name is also the first element in the place-name Thrussington, Leicestershire.
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Viking Names
Thord
The Old Norse male name Þórðr is one of the commonest in Scandinavian, particularly Norway and Iceland. While it is not especially common in English place-names, it is found in Torworth, Nottinghamshire.
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Viking Names
Staythorpe
Staythorpe, in the Thurgarton Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Stari and the Old Norse element þorp ‘outlying farm, settlement’.
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Viking Names
Stamford
Stamford, in the Ness Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is one of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw. The place-name comes from the Old English elements stan ‘stone’ and ford ‘ford’. The town is located near a point where the River Welland was easily fordable throughout the year. In 913 The Great Heathen Army arrived in Stamford.
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Viking Names
Derby
Derby, in the Morleyston and Litchurch Hundred of Derbyshire, is the only one of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw to bear a Scandinavian name. It is also one of the few instances of a Scandinavian-named place for which we have an earlier English name. The English name is Norðworðig from the Old English elements norð ‘north’ and worðig ‘enclosure’. This is possibly related to Derby’s position, slightly north-east of Tamworth and that the enclosure’s northernness is relative to the ancient capital of Mercia. In standard reference books the name Derby is explained as Djúrabý, comprising Old Norse djúr ‘deer’ and by ‘farm, settlement’. Furthermore the compound recurs in the British Isles, and probably refers to a particular function – djúrabý ‘specialised production units that had earlier formed parts of multiple estates’. However, the first element of the name probably has a completely different derivation based on its location on the River Derwent, whose name is pre-English in origin. The form of the river-name in the Anglo-Saxon period was Deorwente. Scandinavian settlers hearing this river-name could have associated the first element deor with the familiar compound djúrabý, or indirectly adapted the Romano-British settlement name Derventio. It is certainly possible that the Romano-British name continued in use to refer to the fortified area in the Anglo-Saxon period. Mint-signatures from Derby point to the likelihood not only that Deoraby originally referred specifically to the area of the Roman fort, but also that it is a Scandinavianisation of a pre-existing name of British origin used by the Anglo-Saxons.
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Viking Names
Toton
The name of Toton, in the Broxtow Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Tófi and the Old English element tun ‘farm, settlement’. It is thus a hybrid name, like others in the region. There are several examples in the Trent valley such as Gonalston or Rolleston. Such names are often called Grimston-hybrids, but the late Kenneth Cameron, formerly professor at the University of Nottingham, always preferred the term Toton-hybrids, since the element ‘Grim’ does not always derive from an Old Norse personal name.
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Viking Names
Colston Bassett
Colston, in the Bingham Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Kolr and the Old English element tun ‘farm, settlement’. It is thus a hybrid name like others nearby, such as Thoroton and Aslockton. Bassett was added in the twelfth or thirteenth century from the name of an owner of the manor. Such suffixes were used to distinguish this Colston from Car Colston, some eight miles to the north of Colston Bassett.
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Viking Names
Barnby Moor
Barnby, in the Bassetlaw Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, probably comes from the Old Norse elements barn ‘child’ and by ‘farm, settlement’. Its meaning, ‘children’s farm’, may indicate joint inheritance by the offspring. However, it is also possible that the first element is from the Old Norse male personal name Barni.