Viking Names
Ref
Refr is a fairly common male name in the Viking world. It is found in two Swedish runic inscriptions and may originally have been a nickname, as it means ‘fox’. It forms the first element of Revesby, Lincolnshire.
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Viking Names
Sandi
Sandi is either a short form for names in Sand- or an original byname from Old Norse sandr ‘sand’. A single instance of Sandi is recorded as a byname in West Scandinavia. It is also recorded in Sweden. Sandi is also the first element in the place-name Saundby, Nottinghamshire.
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Viking Names
Brentingby
Brentingby, in the Framland Hundred of Leicestershire, is a difficult place-name that presents several problems. It is potentially an Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid from the Old English male personal name Branting or Brenting combined with Old Norse by ‘a farmland, a village’. Alternatively the name could be ‘the by of Brant’s people’ with the Old English –ingas ‘people of’ place-name forming element. However, an Old English folk-name combined with Old Norse by is unusual. Another suggestion is that an early Old English place-name Branting/Brenting, from Old English brant ‘steep’ and the place-name forming suffix –ing, was later compounded with Old Norse by thus ‘the farmstead, village at Branting (‘the steep place’)’. Brentingby stands on a steep slope above the flood-plain of the River Eye.
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Viking Names
Croxton Kerrial
The first element of Croxton Kerrial, in the Framland Hundred of Leicestershire, likely comes from the Old Danish male personal name Krōk (Old Norse Krókr), originally a byname meaning ‘crooked-back’, possibly ‘crooked-dealer’ related to Old Norse krókr ‘hook’. Alternatively the first element could be Old English crōc ‘a crook’, which relates to a location situated in a nook or bend of land. The second element is Old English tun ‘an enclosure; a farmstead; a village; an estate’. The land was granted to granted to Bertramus de Cryoll in 1239 thus the affix Kerrial. This name can be compared to South Croxton also in Leicestershire.
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Viking Names
Oakthorpe
Oakthorpe, historically belonging to the Repton and Gresley Hundred of Derbyshire, probably comes from the Old Norse male personal name Áki (genitive singular Áka) and the Old Norse element þorp ‘outlying farm, settlement’. Alternatively the first element of the place-name could be Old English ac ‘oak tree’; however, it is more likely that the Old Norse personal name became confused with this Old English appellative. Oakthorpe is a joint parish with Donisthorpe and they were both transferred to Leicestershire in 1897.
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Viking Names
Osgathorpe
Osgathorpe, in the West Goscote Hundred of Leicestershire, comes from the Old Danish male personal name Asgot (Old Norse Ásgautr) and the Old Norse element þorp ‘outlying farm, settlement’. Some later forms of the name show replacement by the Norman male personal name Angod. In the neighbouring Thringstone in Coalville parish, the field-names Ossegodishaug and Hosgothawe (with Old English haga or Old Norse hagi ‘enclosure’) presumably record the same owner of land.
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Viking Names
Snibston
Snibston, in the West Goscote Hundred of Leicestershire, is a hybrid place-name formed from the Old Norse male personal name Snípr, a byname related to Norwegian snipa ‘a miser, an unsociable person’ and Old English tun ‘farm, settlement’. Snibston became a joint parish with Ravenstone in 1884 when Ravenstone moved from Derbyshire to Leicestershire.
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Viking Names
Owthorpe
Owthorpe, in the Bingham Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Úfi and the Old Norse element þorp ‘a secondary settlement, a dependent outlying farmstead or hamlet’.
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Viking Names
Snelland
The derivation of Snelland, in the Wraggoe Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is uncertain. The first element is either the Old Norse male personal name Snjallr or the Old English male personal name Snell, the second element is Old Norse lundr ‘a small wood’.
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Viking Names
Broddi
Broddi, the first element in the place-name Broadholme, Lincolnshire, is otherwise mainly recorded in Iceland.
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Viking Names
Elli
Elli is a mythological name from Old Norse elli ‘old age’. In Snorri Sturluson’s Edda, Thor battles with Elli who here is a personification of old age in the guise of an old woman. Even the mighty Thor cannot defeat her! The name Elli may be found as an element in some West Yorkshire place-names, but it cannot actually be distinguished from the Old English male personal name Ælla or Ælli.