Viking Names
Modir
The Old Norse female name Móðir is found in Motherby, Cumberland, and has been suggested as the first element in Moodersley, a minor name in Kedleston, Appletree Hundred, Derbyshire. The name Kedleston itself includes the male personal name Ketill. Móðir means literally ‘mother’ and the use of family terms as personal names (compare the use of ‘Sonny’ in English), while not frequent, is attested in Scandinavia.
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Viking Names
Skroppa
Skroppa is not recorded outside the sagas of the Icelanders but has been postulated as a female personal name which forms the first element of Scrooby, Nottinghamshire. In the Saga of Hord, Skroppa is a sorceress who uses illusion and shapechanging.
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Viking Names
Budby
Budby, in the Bassetlaw Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, likely comes from the Old Norse male personal name Butti (or possibly Botti)and the Old Norse element bý ‘farm, settlement’. Budby is a joint parish with Perlethorpe.
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Viking Names
Gyda
Gyða appears early in Norway and is frequent there but it is not as common in Iceland. It appears in two Danish runic inscriptions and is common in other Danish sources. The name also appears in a few Swedish runic inscriptions and is found in later Swedish sources. Gyða is also attested in medieval documents from Lincolnshire and Domesday Book for Yorkshire. The name is a pet form of Gyríðr and it has been suggested that it was borrowed from England because several of the oldest carriers of the name appear to be of mixed Nordic and English origin.
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Viking Names
Snarford
Snarford, in the Lawress Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is an Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid from the genitive singular form of the Old Norse male personal name Snǫrtr, i.e. Snartar, and Old English ford ‘a ford’. The ford crossed Barlings Eau and Snarford may have been situated on an ancient line of communication between Lincoln and the Wolds.
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Viking Names
Snort
Snǫrtr was originally a byname similar in meaning to Norwegian snerting ‘quick fellow’. It is fairly common as a personal name in Iceland. The genitive singular form of the name, Snartar, is the first element in Snarford, Lincolnshire.
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Viking Names
Saxilby
Saxilby, in the Lawress Wapentake of Lincolnshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Saksulfr and Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. It is a joint parish with Ingleby.
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Viking Names
Aslak
The male name Áslákr is common in Norway in both the Viking Age and later, and also occurs in a few runic inscriptions from Denmark and Sweden. It forms the first element of the Nottinghamshire hybrid place-name Aslockton and is also found in Aslackby in Lincolnshire.
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Viking Names
Bark
The Old Norse male personal name Barkr originated as a byname. The name is related to the Old Norse noun bǫrkr (genitive barkar) ‘bark’. One of the settlers of Iceland bore the form Bǫrkr and the name appears as an element in a few Western Scandinavian place-names. Bark is found as a byname in Sweden. Barki is potentially a side-form of Barkr or could be from barki ‘throat’- also a byname. Barkr is the first element in the place-name Barkby, Leicestershire and this place-name was later affixed to Barkby Thorpe, its daughter settlement.
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Viking Names
Val
Valr is an original byname meaning ‘hawk, falcon’. Valr is recorded as a male personal name and byname in West Scandinavia and is found in a Swedish runic inscription. Valr is the first element in the place-name Walesby, Nottinghamshire, and a place of the same name in Lincolnshire. Walshcroft Wapentake in Lincolnshire also contains either this name or the Old Norse male name Váli and Old Norse kross, the cross probably marking the location of the Viking Age meeting-place. Cameron suggests that the same man gave his name to Walesby and the wapentake.
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Viking Names
Alfgeir
Álfgeirr was not a common name in Viking Age Scandinavia, but it is attested in all of the Scandinavian countries and Iceland. The personal name was once found as the first element of the place-name Algarthorpe, Nottinghamshire; however, the village is now deserted. The name is an Old Norse compound formed from Álf-, identical with alfr ‘elf’, which is not particularly popular in Scandinavian names, and –geirr, ‘spear’ which is a common element in Old Norse personal names.