Viking Names
Flik
Flík was originally a byname possibly related to Old Norse flík ‘tatter’ hence ‘gaping wound’ or the name of a farm. It the first element of the place-name Flixborough, Lincolnshire.
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Viking Names
Asvard
Ásvarðr is an Old Norse compound name from Ás- ‘a god’ and –viðr ‘tree, wood’. There is not much evidence for this name in Old Norse sources. However, there is an Ásvarðr in Norway in the tenth century mentioned in Njáls saga. The name is found as an element in the Danish place-name Asserbo and also found as the first element of Aswarby and Aswardby in Lincolnshire.
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Viking Names
Ullesthorpe
The first element of Ullesthorpe, in the Guthlaxton Hundred of Leicestershire, is the Old Norse male personal name Úlfr (Old Danish Ulf), an original byname meaning ‘wolf’. It was a common name throughout the Viking diaspora. The second element is Old Norse þorp ‘a secondary settlement, a dependent outlying farmstead or hamlet’. The township names that line Watling Street and those to its north-east are predominately English in origin; however, Ullesthorpe, Catthorpe, and Bittesby are the exceptions. It is important to note that although Ullesthope has both an Old Norse specific and generic, Bitteby’s first element is Old English and Catthorpe’s is a feudal affix, which indicate only light Scandinavian settlement in the surrounding area. Ullesthorpe and Bittesby were formally a single land unit which Bittesby was later carved out. Ullesthorpe was likely the dependent village of Bittesby, and now has a narrow reach of land to its west which runs to Watling Street.
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Viking Names
Eindridi
The Old Norse male name Eindriði is mainly found in Norway. It is the first element of Enderby (now divided into Bag Enderby, Mavis Enderby and Wood Enderby) and possibly Anderby, both in Lincolnshire. There is also an Enderby in Leicestershire.
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Viking Names
Skalli
Skalli an original byname meaning ‘bald-head’. It is recorded in Western Scandinavian mythology as the name of a giant, it is fairly common as a byname in Norway and Iceland. A few instances are recorded in runic inscriptions in Sweden and in Danish place-names. Skalli is the first element in Scawby, Lincolnshire, as well in several other place-names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire
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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
Brooksby
Brooksby, in the East Goscote Hundred of Leicestershire, is a difficult name. The first element is likely the Old Norse male personal name Brok which was originally a byname derived from Old Norse brók ‘breeches’. Alternatively it has been suggested that the first element is Old English broc ‘a brook, a stream (used of a stream with a muddy bed and a visible sediment load)’. This brook may refer to the River Wreake or more likely a small stream which rises near Brooksby. The first element could also be the Old Danish cognate brok ‘bog, marsh’ which is found in place-names in Denmark. However, these elements do not otherwise show a genitival structure whereas the personal name does. The second element of the name is Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’.
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Viking Names
Sileby
Sileby, in the East Goscote Hundred of Leicestershire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Sigulfr and the Old Norse element by ‘a farmstead, a village’.
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Viking Names
Thurmaston
Thurmaston, in the East Goscote Hundred of Leicestershire, is an Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid from the common Old Norse male personal name Þormóðr and Old English tun ‘an enclosure; a farmstead; a village; an estate’. A few thirteenth and fourteenth century spellings of Thurmaston seem influenced by the Old Norse male personal name Þormundr. A large pagan, Anglian cemetery has been discovered here, no doubt that of an important early settlement site preceding Scandinavian appropriation.
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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.