Viking Names
Lincoln
Lincoln is one of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw. The original name is derived from pre-English lindo, pre-Welsh linn ‘a pool’, which likely refers to the broad pool in the River Witham, now known as Brayford. The pre-English form of Latin colonia was added after the establishment here of a settlement of legionaries in succession to the earlier fortress.
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Viking Names
Aslockton
Aslockton, in the Bingham Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Áslákr and the Old English element tun ‘farm, settlement’. It is thus a hybrid name like others nearby, such as Thoroton and Colston Bassett.
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Viking Names
Eakring
Eakring, in the Bassetlaw Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from the Old Norse elements eik ‘oak’ and hringr ‘ring’ and must have been named after a circle of oak trees.
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Viking Names
Wood Enderby
The name Enderby probably comes from the Old Norse male personal name Eindriði and the Old Norse element by ‘farm, settlement’. ‘Wood’ was added later to distinguish this part of the settlement from Bag Enderby and Mavis Enderby.
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Viking Names
Legsby
Legsby, in the South Riding of Lindsey of Lincolnshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Leggr and the Old Norse element by ‘farmstead, village’. The boundary between Legsby and Linwood was recorded as Leggeshou/ Legeshou/ Leggeshow ‘Legg’s mound, burial mound’ presumably named from the same man and Old Norse haugr ‘hill, mound, a burial mound’.
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Viking Names
South Ferriby
The name of Ferriby (there is also a North Ferriby across the Humber), in the Yarborough Wapentake of Lincolnshire, comes from the Old Norse elements ferja ‘ferry’ and by ‘farm, settlement’. Both North and South Ferriby were in existence by 1086 and are mentioned in Domesday Book.
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Viking Names
Bothild
Bóthildr, -hilda is a compound name with the first element being Bót- probably to be compared with Old Norse bót ‘remedy, improvement’. While some scholars believe this element is a loan from the continent or England, it is certain that in Scandinavia it was interpreted as bót. The second element of the name is Old Norse -hildr ‘battle’, Both forms of the name are fairly frequent in Norway after c 1300 and it is also found in place-names there. It was rare in Iceland but common in Denmark and also found in Sweden. Bóthildr, -hilda appears as the first element in the medieval field names Botildewellewong in Anston, West Yorkshire, and Botildehau in East Yorkshire. It is also possibly the first element in the field name Botilgarth in Fishlake, West Yorkshire. The name is also well-attested in medieval Yorkshire and Lincolnshire documents.
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Viking Names
Claxby
Claxby, in the North Riding of Lindsey in Lincolnshire, is formed from the Old Norse male personal name Klakkr and Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. There are two other identical formations of the place-name in the South Riding of Lindsey of Lincolnshire, Claxby, and Claxby Pluckacre.
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Viking Names
Spittlegate
Spittlegate, in the Winnibriggs and Threo Wapentake of Lincolnshire, comes from Middle English spitel ‘a hospital, a religious house, a house of the Knights Hospitallers’ and Old Norse gata ‘a road, a street; a right of way; a right of access to pasture-land; a right of pasturage; an allotment of pasture’. The name is first recorded in 1284 and clearly a post-Viking Age formation, though showing the continued use of originally Old Norse vocabulary in name-giving.
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Viking Names
Misson
Misson, in the Bassetlaw Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, is a difficult name. It may be a river name, of which the first element has affinities with Danish mysse, Swedish myssene, or Old Norse mysni ‘a water-plant (?water-arum)’ either as a simplex name or combined with Old Norse á ‘a river’. Alternatively, the name might derive from Old English mos ‘a bog, a swamp; presumably also moss’.
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Viking Names
Scrafield
Scrafield, in the Hill Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is probably an Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid from Old Norse skreið ‘a land-slide’ and Old English feld. The latter element has a wide range of meanings in place-names, including ‘open country, unencumbered ground (eg. land without trees as opposed to forest, level ground as opposed to hills, land without buildings)’ and from the late tenth century it also refers to arable land.