Viking Names
Risby
Risby, in the West Riding of Lindsey in Lincolnshire from Old Norse hrís ‘shrubs, brushwood’ and Old Norse by ‘A farmstead, a village’. This name is found as Rejsby and Risby in Denmark and it is possible that the place-name is transferred from there. If this is the case it was presumably because it is topographically appropriate for the English name as for the Danish. Risby is a joint parish with Roxby.
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Viking Objects
Ring-and-Dot Pin (NLM-7A2D15)
Copper-alloy cast pin with a flat discoid head, no collar, and stamped decoration on the head, Flixborough type 601. The head bears three large [diameter 4.4mm] ring-and-dot motifs on each of its opposed faces. The tip of the shank is lost. The introduction of flat-headed pins with ring-and-dot decoration, superseding other types, is held by Dave Haldenby to mark the arrival of Viking settlers at Cottam, East Riding of Yorkshire. Suggested date: Early Medieval, 865-925. The finder suggests this to be part of an assemblage amounting to c.5% of material recovered from an extensive site, the rest being removed illicitly without record. Archaeological opinion holds the site to have been of equivalent character to Flixborough, North Lincolnshire, in terms of its material culture. Coins are under-represented in the group.
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Viking Names
Winthorpe
Winthorpe, in the Newark Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from either the Old English make personal name Wigmund or its Scandinavian equivalent Vígmundr and Old Norse þorp ‘a secondary settlement, a dependent outlying farmstead or hamlet’.
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Viking Names
Brocklesby
Brocklesby, in the Yarborough Wapentake of Lincolnshire, comes from the postulated Old Norse personal name Bróklauss and the Old Norse element bý ‘a farmstead, a village’. The first element is originally a nickname meaning ‘without breeches’ and is likely an Anglo-Scandinavian formation.
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Viking Names
Tupholme
Tupholme, in the Gartree Wapentake of Lincolnshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Túpi and Old Norse holmr ‘an island, an inland promontory, raised ground in marsh, a river-meadow’. Alternatively, the first element may represent Middle English tup ‘a ram, a tup’.
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Viking Names
Thrumpton
Thrumpton, in the Rushcliffe Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Þórmóðr and the Old English tun ‘farm, settlement’. Thus it is an Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid name. There is a place of the same name, with the same origin, in the Bassetlaw Wapentake.
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Viking Names
Ragnhild
The female name Ragnhildr is very common throughout the Scandinavian world, including several parts of Britain and Ireland, up to modern times. There is a suggestion that it was restricted to royalty and aristocrats in the Viking Age and then spread to other social groups. It may be the first element of the Lincolnshire place-name Raventhorpe, although in fact the earliest forms suggest the male name Ragnaldr, and more recent publications prefer this interpretation.
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Viking Names
Gudrid
Guðríðr was common in Iceland from the time of settlement (c. 870-930) onwards and is recorded in the quasi-historical Old Norse-Icelandic text Landnámabók ‘The Book of Settlements’ that recounts this period. The name was also common in Norway and is found in a Danish runic inscription and possibly appears in a Swedish place-name. Forms of Guðríðr are attested in medieval Yorkshire charters and documents. The first element of the name is Guð from guð, ‘the gods’ and is combined with the second element -(f)ríðr, related to Gothic frījōn ‘to love’ with the original meaning ‘loved’, later meaning ‘fair’.
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Viking Names
Ulfljot
The Old Norse female personal name Úlfljót is comprised of the element Úlf– ‘wolf’ and the element -ljót which is also attested as the simplex female personal name Ljót. Although Úlfljót is not otherwise attested, the masculine equivalent Úlfljótr is recorded in Iceland and possibly Yorkshire. John Hines has suggested that the female name is inscribed in runes on the Saltfleetby spindle whorl found at Saltfleetby St Clement, Lincolnshire, which he has translated as ‘Óðinn and Heimdallr and Þalfa, they are helping you, Úlfljót…’.
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Viking Names
Holme Pierrepont
Holme Pierrepont, in the Bingham Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from Old Norse holmr ‘an island, an inland promontory, raised ground in marsh, a river-meadow’. The name describes its location which is surrounded by watercourses and dikes. The suffix Pierrepont was added at a later date to reflect the family connected to the location. For more information about holmr place-names in the East Midlands, see the Lunchtime Talk Holme from Home? East Midland Place-Names and the Story of Viking Settlement.
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Viking Names
Thorarna
Þórarna is a Old Norse compound name with the first element Þór-, from the name of the god Þórr ‘Thor’ (very common in both male and female names), combined with -arna, the feminine form of -arinn, either from arinn ‘hearth’ or more probably the postulated element *arin related to ǫrn ‘eagle’. A couple of instances of Þórarna are recorded in Norway with one of the earliest being from the ninth century. The name is frequent in Iceland evidenced by the multiple mentions in Landnámabók ‘The Book of Settlements’, a quasi-historical text which recounts the settlement of Iceland. Þórarna is not attested in Denmark or Sweden. There is a form of the name found in the Yorkshire Domesday, but it may alternatively represent the male name Þórormr.