Viking Names
Sibbi
Sibbi is originally a short form of the Old Norse male personal Sigbjǫrn. As an independent name it is common in Sweden and fairly frequent in Denmark, and is recorded in a number of runic inscriptions. Sibbi is potentially the first element in the place-name Sibthorpe, Nottinghamshire.
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Viking Names
Worlaby
Worlaby, in the Yarborough Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is a hybrid name coming from the Old English male personal name Wulfric and Old Norse by ‘farm, settlement’, identical with Worlaby in the Hill Wapentake of Leicestershire, now a lost village. The two Domesday book spellings in Ulu- are presumably Scandinavianised forms.
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Skegness
Skegness, in the Candleshoe Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is a Scandinavian compound, but the meaning of the place-name is uncertain. One suggestion is ‘Skeggi’s headland’ from the Old Norse male personal name Skeggi and the Old Norse element nes ‘ a ness, a headland, a promontory’. More likely, the first element could be the Old Norse element skegg ‘beard’, ‘something jutting out’, which is related to the verb skaga and the topographical term skagi ‘promontory’. This Old Norse appellative is probably found in the two Skegby place-names in Nottinghamshire.
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Viking Names
Thurgarton
Thurgarton, in the Thurgarton Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Þorgeirr (though in an anglicised form Þurgar) and the Old English element tun ‘farm, settlement’, and is thus a hybrid name.
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Viking Names
Hild
Hildr is a monothematic name derived from Old Norse hildr ‘battle’, and in Old Norse mythology it was the name of a valkyrie. It is common across Scandinavia and also a common second element in a number of female personal names such as the very common Gunnhildr, Ragnhildr, etc. The name is attested as the first element in Hinderskelfe, North Yorkshire, and in Hinderwell, North Yorkshire. Hinderwell may originally have contained the name of the English St Hild of Streanæshalch (Whitby), but preserved forms of the place-name show Scandinavian grammar in the use of the genitive singular Hildar. This form is also seen in a lost field-name in Brocklesby, Lincolnshire.
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Viking Names
Eileif
The Old Norse male personal name Eiláfr/Eileifr is not always to be distinguished from another Old Norse male personal name Eilífr. This is evident in the place-name Elston, Nottinghamshire where the first element is either Eiláfr or perhaps Eilífr. Eiláfr/Eileifr is an Old Norse compound name with the first element being either Ei- ‘always’ or Ein- ‘one, alone, single’ combined with the second element -leifr/-láfr ‘inheritance’ which when used in a personal name likely has the sense of ‘son’. This name was frequently used throughout medieval Scandinavia and is attested in Danish place-names and runic inscription, Swedish runic inscriptions, and became common in Norway after 1270. The name occurs in Domesday Book, and later medieval documents, for both Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
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Viking Names
Inga
Inga is very common in Denmark and Sweden (where it appears in a number of runic inscriptions) and probably spread from these two areas into Norway in the thirteenth century. where the name remained popular thereafter; however, it is also possible that Inga developed independently in Norway. In the Danelaw, Inga appears in medieval documents from Lincolnshire as early as c. 1160. The name is a short form of Old Norse female names in Ing(i)-, which is of doubtful origin but perhaps related to a Greek word meaning ‘lance, staff’.
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Viking Names
Saxulf
Saxulfr is an Old Norse compound of Sax-, from either Old Norse sax ‘short sword’ or Saxar the masculine plural of ‘Saxons’, and –ulfr ‘wolf’. The mutated form Sǫxulfr appears early in West Scandinavia, but it is not very common. It is found in one Norwegian place-name, a couple of place-names in Sweden, and a number of place-names in Denmark. Saxulfr is also likely the first element of the place-name Saxilby, Lincolnshire.
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Viking Names
Thorfast
Þorfastr is a common male name in the eastern part of the Viking world – it is common in Swedish runic inscriptions and is even found in the inscription on a rune-stone fragment found in Finland, as well as a couple of Danish ones, but it does not occur in any Norwegian or Icelandic texts. It can be found in the runic inscription on the Lincoln comb-case.
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Viking Names
Alfrun
Alfrún was recorded in West Scandinavia (Norway and Iceland) as a mythological name. It is an Old Norse compound formed from the elements Alf- ‘elf’ and –rún ‘confidante’. It has been suggested that when used in a personal name it has the sense of ‘secret, wisdom’, associated with rúnar ‘runes’. There may be one attestation of Alfrún in a medieval church document from Lincolnshire. However, the form may alternatively represent the Old English female personal name, Ælfrūn.
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Viking Names
Gaut
Gautr and the related Gauti are short forms of names in Gaut- or -gautr, or an original byname meaning ‘man from Gautland’. This region comprises the provinces now known as Östergötland and Västergötland in southern Sweden, and is the homeland of the Geats in the Old English poem Beowulf. Gautr is recorded in several Swedish and Norwegian runic inscriptions and is also the name of a rune-carver in the Isle of Man. The name appears in two inscriptions there; on the runic cross from Kirk Michael it is (boastfully but erroneously) claimed that ‘Gautr made this and all in Man’.