English Compound Names by Oswin Kinsey 2016-04-20
English Compound Names by Oswin Kinsey 2016-04-20
English Compound Names by Oswin Kinsey 2016-04-20
COMPOUND NAMES
Anglo-Saxon Names Brought to Life
by
Oswin Kinsey
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Great thanks to Osred.
This work has been made to be had and shared freely for non-commercial use.
Any commercial use of this work, or offshoot of this work, need prior permission from the
copyright owner and writer of this book.
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Inside
Shortenings 5
Naming Words 12
Manly Names 34
Groundwork 125
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What Are English Compound Names
A compound name is a name that's formed from two or more words. The first unlikeness
between a one-word given name, like Hunter, and a twofold compound name, like Ashley, is
that you can make many more twofold names using the same hoard of words than you can
by only using one-word names. With the 323 Old English naming words in this book, one
can make over 100,000 names. The other main unlikeness is that compound names allow
for more mindful wordcrafting, and a greater wealth of meanings.
It was everyday for the bygone Germanic folks to use twofold names as given names.
This work also stretched throughout the Indo-European folks, most notably in the Celtic,
Slavic, Greek and Indic folks.
In Old English times, names often followed set ways. Some kindreds followed ways
such as a father, Edward, giving his daughter, Edith, a name that was alliterative with his.
He might also give all his daughters names which began with vowels.
We still use some twofold names as forenames, but many more live on as lastnames.
We haven't been making new twofold names in English for a long time, so names like
Richard and William have stuck around, but English-speakers often think of them as any
other name. (If we think of names at all.)
Richard is a great example of a twofold name for us, being that if you break it apart,
the words used still read well in today's tongue. It's made of two different words, rich and
hard. The name itself came to use in a funny way, from Frankish, (from where Dutch
comes) and bore by the Normans into English, so it doesn't actually come from Old English.
(You can read more about that in the following heading, A Tale of the English Tongue.) So
what does that mean? If you make a name of those two words does it mean a rich man who
is strong and hardy? Or one who is rich in soul but stern?
William took the same way into English as Richard. It's a bit harder to understand. If
you break it apart, it reads as will and iam. The iam bit of the name came from the word,
helm, which means shielding (as in a helmet). If we take these two words we can make the
name William (or Wilhelm) to mean The will to shield.
There are some odd names that only live on today as remnants of Old English
wordcraft, like the name Hondscio in the epic poem Beowulf. Those are both kinds of Old
English twofold names. Hondscio reads to us as Hand-shoe and Beowulf as Bee-wolf. At
first read they seem rather odd. After-all, what is a hand-shoe, or a bee-wolf? Like the lay in
which they're found, the names themselves have wordcrafty meaning to them. Handshoe,
thus, could be taken straightforwardly as a shoe for your hand or a glove! Beowulf is not as
straightforward, but some scholars, such as J. R. R. Tolkien, (writer of The Hobbit, and Lord
of the Rings) render it as Beewolf. So what is a Bee-wolf? A bee is something that gets
pollen, makes honey, and can have a strong sting. A wolf is a strong pack animal that's
known for its keen hunting skills. One might take Bee-wolf to mean, Bee-hunter. And what
hunts for bees and honey? Bears! So bee-hunter could be taken to mean, Bear.
Many historical logs of names come to us through lastnames and logs of
landownership. Therefore, many of the names our lore gives us are for men, and thus, only
one sixth of the names in this book are for women. But that doesn't mean more womanly
names weren't around, only that logs of them are hard to come by. This goal of this book is
to give you not just a list of names, but the knowledge and tools to make your own names.
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Shortenings
EG East Germanic
FN Franco-Norman
ME Middle English
NE New English
NG North Germanic
OE Old English
OF Old French
OHG Old High German
OLG Old Low German
ON Old Norse
PIE Proto-Indo-European
WG West Germanic
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How to Read This Book
The heading Naming Words lists each word which works as a part of a twofold name. It
lists how they were spelled and spoken in OE, their straightforward and shadowy meanings,
and any spellings of it that live in NE. Each word, or name bit, is listed as follows:
OE Name Spellings (OE Speakings) Meanings
NE Name Spellings [Those with non-OE roots in brackets] Unattested NE Shapings
The speaking keys are meant to be as friendly to the layman as can be. English has gone
through some great changes since the time of OE. The following bids at showing how OE
words are to be read and spoken.
Where an 'a' is followed by an 'h' in the speaking keys, ('ah') it's meant to be a 'long
a', as in the word 'father'. Where an 'a' is not followed by an 'h', it should be spoken as a
'short a', as in 'cat'.
Where a 'gh' happens in the speaking keys, it should be spoken as a rough, hoarse
sound, almost as if one were trying to cough up some phlegm. It's like the 'ch' sound in the
Scottish word 'loch'.
Where a '' sound appears in the speaking keys, it is made by shaping your mouth as
if making an 'o' sound, but voice an 'i' sound. It's like the vowel sound in the French word
'jeau'.
OE also has characters no longer found in NE. They include: , Ash, spoken as
a 'short a'. , Wynn, spoken as a 'w'. , Thorn, and , That, used
interchangeably as the 'th' in 'thin' and as the 'th' in 'this'. Y in OE is spoken as the aforesaid
''. , in OE, is spoken like a 'Y/y' in NE. , is like the NE 'ch' sound. Sc is like the NE
'sh' sound. Cg is like the NE dg/dj sound, as in bridge.
The main part of the book lists each twofold name as it lives in NE, the meaning of
its bits, any settled new meanings or wordcrafty builds that come of the blend. Each listing
is colour-coded for quick reference. Red = Brought by the Normans; Black = Shaped from
OE; Blue = Living from OE; Green = Living from a Germanic cognate. It reads as follows:
Name in NE First Meaning Second Meaning Compound Meaning
Roots of, and notes on the name.
Some examples of this are:
Albert High-born Bright
Living name brought by the Normans, from FN Albert, from WG Adalbert. Cognate with
OE elbeorht. See also Athelbert.
Beewolf Bee Wolf; Hunter Bear
NE shaping from OE Beoulf.
Edward Wealthy Warden; Powerful
Living name from OE adeard.
Siegfried Winning Free; Peaceful
Living name from German Siegfried. Cognate with OE Siefri. Popularised by the
character from the Nibelung Saga. See also Seyfred.
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A Tale of the English Tongue
The lore of the English tongue is a one of wanderings, takeovers, and the blending of
tongues. It begins with Proto-Indo-European (PIE), a pre-historic proto-language from
which most European tongues, and Hindi (from Sanskrit) come. English belongs to the
Germanic kindred of tongues, along with Frisian, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Swedish,
Danish and Icelandic, and dead branches such as the Gothic tongues. Many basic words in
English like brother, father, and mother, share the same roots (are cognate) not only with
other Germanic tongues, but other Indo-European tongues. (For example, brother is cognate
with the Latin frater, mother with mater, father with pater.) The roots of some English
words, however, are unknown. Some think these words come from an unknown non-PIE
tongue of Northern Europe that blended with PIE to make the Germanic tongues, while
others think the PIE cognates have simply not yet been found.
Within the kindred of Germanic tongues there are three main splits: North Germanic
(NG) (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic and Faroese); West Germanic (WG) (English,
Frisian, Dutch and German); and East Germanic (EG) (the now dead Gothic languages).
The waning and fall of the Roman Empire in the 4th6th Centuries left a power
vacuum throughout Europe and brought on what is known as the Migration Age. It was a
time marked by the wanderings of Germanic tribes, who shifted south into formerly Roman
ruled, Latin-speaking areas. The Romans withdrew from their outposts in Great Britain in
the 5th Century to better control their interests closer to the Mediterranean.
The southern Brythonic folks had lived under Roman rule and were shielded by the
Romans for hundreds of years. When the Romans left, they were wide open to attacks from
the Picts (what's now Scotland), Scotti (Scots, from Ireland) and Saxons (from mainland
Europe). One of the answers to their problems was to call for hirelings from mainland
Europe seafaring Germanic folks, such as the Angles, Frisians, Jutes, and Saxons, to shield
them from other raiders. We now call these folks the Anglo-Saxons. Once the folks of the
cold Northern European climate had spied the relatively arable land and welcome weather
of Great Britain, they had other ideas in mind. Over the next four centuries, whole
folkdoms went forth from continental Europe into Great Britain. The homeland of the
Angles was said by Bede (673-735) to have remained deserted from that day to this. It's
also hypothesised that the mass migrations of the Angles, Frisians and Saxons to Great
Britain was due to the Dunkirk Transgressions, floods that turned their homelands into
marshes and left clay deposits which left the earth barren for hundreds of years.
How the displacement of the native Brythonic tongue and way of life came about is
not known for sure. One thought is that the new Anglo-Saxon overlords formed an
aparthood, thrusting those unwilling to take on the new Anglo-Saxon tongues and way of
life to the edges of society, where they were less likely to have children and an input.
Another theory is that the culture clash was so strong that whole populations of Brythonic
peoples were simply displaced (into Wales, Cornwall, the north, and across the sea to
Brittany) and those who remained were killed off. (The modern day province of Brittany in
France was largely formed by Brythonic folks fleeing Great Britain in the 5th and 6th
Centuries.) The reality is likely a binding of the two. Recent DNA testing on the Y
chromosome (a part of DNA passed down father-to son almost unchanged) shows that most
modern Englishmen and southern Scots are more closely related to Frisians than Brythonic
folks such as the Welsh.
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The Angles, Saxons, Frisians and Jutes all spoke West Germanic (WG) tongues. The
way they spoke were alike enough to be fairly well understood by one another, and might
have been considered what we think of as dialects, rather than wholly different tongues.
They also bore alike ways of life, weapons, and clothing. Certain areas of Great Britain
were settled by different tribes. The east coast, from what is now Northumbria, to East
Anglia, including the English Midlands, was settled by the Angles. Kent was founded and
settled mainly by Jutes. The southern part of Great Britain was settled by the Saxons, which
is why these areas are now known as Essex (East Saxony), Middlesex (Middle Saxony),
Wessex (West Saxony) and Sussex (South Saxony). These regional differences would
amount to regional dialects of what we now call Anglo-Saxon, or Old English.
The Anglo-Saxon invaders of England in the 4th--7th Centuries brought with them not
only their alike tongues, but their shared heathen religion. It was based in nature, with gods
that represented the Sun, the Moon, the planets, and aspects like thunder and shielding
(Thuner); fertility (Frie and Easter); wisdom and poetic inspiration (Woden); and
righteousness and warfare (Tiw). The names of these gods and the planetary bodies they
stood for live on in the names of the days of the week: Sunday (Sunne's day), Monday
(Mona's day), Tuesday (Tiw's day), Wednesday (Woden's day), Thursday (Thuner's day),
Friday (Frie's day). One of the last heathen Anglo-Saxon kings was Penda Pybbing of
Mercia. His royal house, the Icelings, was said to have been born of the god Woden.
Over the centuries, Christianity made its way through the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It
came to take over the native Germanic religion of the Anglo-Saxons. Many living English
folk ways still come from Germanic Heathenry, or are largely appropriations. Yule (the
celebration of the winter sunstead) was co-opted by Christians and re-appropriated as
Christmas, though we still know it as Yuletide. Easter, which marked the Spring Equinox
and the fertility and rebirth of the seasonal cycle, was also co-opted by Christians. It also
kept its heathen name. The symbolism of the name Easter still shows today: It comes from
the East, the dawn, and the life and cyclical nature of the seasons which that represents.
As the Anglo-Saxons before them, the Nordic (North Germanic) folks (Norwegians,
Danes, Swedes) thought that Great Britain looked quite attractive from their cold Northern
European standpoint, for its arable land, and agreeable climate. Beginning late in the 8th
Century with an attack on an English Monastery (Lindisfarne) is what we now call the
Viking Age. This ushered in a new wave of migrations and invasions in Great Britain from
Continental Northern Europe.
There were two main differences between these new Germanic invaders and the old
ones. Firstly, the new Wicingas (trading-port-folk; or fjord-folk) or Vikings spoke different
tongues, which came from the North Germanic language family. The tongues they spoke
were alike enough to be somewhat understood by the Anglo-Saxons, but not without some
confusion. The other marked unlikeness was that these invaders practised a different
religion; they were still Germanic Heathens. The Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, being so
far north, did not convert to Christianity until the very end of the Viking Age. Some think
the attack on Lindisfarne was no mistake, that this new wave of attacks was a reaction to the
spread of Christianity. During their invasions into Anglo-Saxon Great Britain in the 8th--
11th Centuries, they were therefore considered 'wicked heathens' by the Christian Anglo-
Saxons. The great Danish invasion of England was known as The Great Heathen Army.
Anglo-Saxon monks would pray, From the fury of the Norsemen deliver us, O Lord!
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These Northmen would not only raid, but settle along the east coast of Great
Britain over the next few centuries. At one point they almost wholly laid waste to the
Anglo-Saxon nobility and made Great Britain their own.
The only English monarch with the title The Great is Alfred The Great, of Wessex.
He won the title for himself in part for being the saviour of the English folk and the English
tongue. He was one of the first to talk about the Anglo-Saxons as a united anglecynn
(English-kin), and use terms like anglaland (England) in a bid to acknowledge their
alikeness against these outlandish, heathen incomers. Due to the deeds of Alfred the Great,
and his descendants, Athelflad, and Athelstan, the English folk and tongue would be saved.
Dialects of English in other parts of the land, such as East Anglia and Kent, however would
be forever changed, or wholly lost, owing to the inflow of the North Germanic tongues.
Alfred's work would also lead to the melding of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into what we
now know as England. Due to the survival of the West Saxons and the wipeout of the other
Anglo-Saxon royal houses, the reading of English which most English-speakers write and
speak today comes largely from the West Saxon dialect of Old English.
The tongues of the Anglo-Saxons was intelligible with the Old Norse (ON) of the
Danes, but only if one spoke very slowly and carefully. The cross-tongue speaking caused
English to lose its declined case system and rely heavily on word order. In New English, a
saying such as The king killed his earl. relies on word-order; if you swap the order
around, such as The earl killed his king. the saying takes on a wholly different meaning.
Old English had case endings, (parts stuck on the end of a word), so you can tell whether it
is the thing doing something, or having something done to it, by its ending. Like the
difference between he and him. You would say, He hit him., and never Him hit he.,
because he is doing the action, and him is having something done to him. That we no
longer think of these is why we often confuse usage of words like I and me; or who
and whom. In OE, every noun would have a case ending in the same way, so the order of
the words wouldn't matter. Whether you said something like, "he hit him" or "him hit he" in
OE, they'd both mean the same thing.
Other ways of simplification through cross-tongue talking in OE and ON led to
English losing its gender system. Like Norwegian, (which comes from Old Norse) each
noun in OE had a gender to it, which also influenced its case ending. The case-endings in
each language, however, had subtle differences, so it was often easier to drop the case-
endings altogether and rely on other contextual cues like word-order. It also meant that
English lost many of its plural forms of words. For example, does it seem weird that the
plural of fox is foxes, but the plural of ox is oxen? Why not Oxes? In OE, it was common
for the plural form of a word to have its own ending. Ox to Oxen, Goose to Geese. These
are two examples that have survived through to NE, but many of these unique plural forms
died out as it was simpler for a Dane to place an 's' on the end of a word to show a plural
rather than trying to learn all of these new plural endings. Many of these grammatical
changes can also be seen in English's sister WG tongue, Frisian, so one could say that these
changes would've taken place in time without of the influence of Old Norse.
As well as changing the way the English words were spoken, the Northmen brought
new words, and sometimes entire OE words were overtaken by ON words. Dome, (meaning
law or judgement) was replaced by ON Lagu (law). Many everyday NE words are of ON
origin, such as knife and sky. The personal pronouns they, them and theirs are altogether of
ON roots, the original OE counter-parts having been replaced by the ON pronouns.
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The year 1066 marked both the end of Anglo-Saxon England, and the end of the
Viking age. The English king, Edward the Confessor, died without clearly naming a
follower. One from his court, Harold Godwinson, took charge and became king. There
were others, however, who claimed the throne was their right. They included the
Norwegian king, Haraldr Harri (Harold Hard-ruler), and the Duke of Normandy,
Guillaume le Btard (William The Bastard). Both Harold Hard-ruler and William of
Normandy launched attacks on England that year. William's attack from across the English
channel was known about, so troops were sent to the southern coast of England to defend its
shores. The attack, however, didn't come as awaited, and with the at-hand threat from the
Norwegian incoming in the north-east, the men were sent north to fight Harold Hard-ruler.
The fight between the English king Harold Godwinson and Harold Hard-ruler came
to a point at The Battle of Stamford Bridge, with Hard-ruler caught off-guard. Hard-ruler
died in the battle. His death would lead to the end of the Norwegian empire, and in the end,
the death of the Viking Age.
Shortly after winning the fight against the Norwegians, word came that the Normans,
led by William of Normandy, had landed on England's shores. Having marched all the way
north and having fought the Norwegians, the English footmen were then forthwith made to
stride back down the length of the country, to the southern shores of England.
The Normans, as the name suggests, were firstly from the far north, and would have
been considered Vikings. Their forebears settled in what is called Normandy, on the French
coast. They set themselves up as the nobility, but unlike the Viking invaders of England,
they did not keep their tongue, or folk ways, and instead took up the local French tongue,
and Roman Catholicism of the area. The names they took, however, were neither of Latin
or their ancestral Old Norse origin. Most of the names they used were of Latin-influenced
Frankish roots. Therefore, many of their names were akin with Old English names (for
example, Franco-Norman (FN) Willelme/Guielme and Old English Wilhelm). The French
tongue spoken in Normandy at this time was a regional dialect of Vulgar Latin, with some
Germanic influence from the Franks, who also spoke a West Germanic tongue. (The
ancestor of Dutch.)
The Normans and the English met in Sussex, in what we now call The Battle of
Hastings. The English were lucky and wise to claim a hilltop, affording them a great uper-
hand. There were marked differences between the Normans and the English. Apart from
their tongues and clothes, they had unlike ways of fighting, and ways of life. The Normans
were considered so ruthless and alien that the English referred to the Normans as Orcs (hell-
spawn). Neither side were fit to fight the other. The Normans brought with them a large
number of horsemen. On an open field, horses bore a great advantage, but they were costly
to feed and keep. The Norman horsemen were found to be useless as they ran up the hill
and clashed with the shield-walls of the steadfast English footmen.
The fight ran on all day. Try as he might with his numbers, technologies, and
strategies, William could not break the English shield-walls. As the day grew long, a
rumour was spread amongst the men. William is dead!" As the word spread, the Normans
on the hill pulled back. Many of the English footmen, only farmers, called to fight with
little to no training thought they had now won. Spent from the fighting, and overjoyed at
the news, broke their lines and ran down the hill after the Normans, hoping to chase them
into the sea. William, as it turned out, was not dead. As the English men ran down the hill,
they lost their advantage, and were surrounded by Norman contingents. Whether it was a
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case of mistaken identity, or a clever ploy by the Norman invader, it worked out to his
advantage. Now that so few English held the hill, the Normans could use their superior
numbers and their horsemen to finish them. Harold Godwinson died in the fight. Following
the fight, England found itself Norman-ruled. William the Bastard got a new byname,
William the Conqueror.
The Norman ruling class was cruel and efficient. Following the events of the Battle
of Hastings, there were decades of civil unrest. In some cases, whole swathes of the land
were killed off in response to rebellious uprisings.
The Normans made French the official language for all business. For hundreds of
years, the low-born folk continued to speak English, but for any official needs, were made to
learn French. The farmer tended to his pigs, cows and sheep, but the king would be served
pork, beef, and mutton. The English folk had their king, but he would call himself the royal.
Some words, however, were simply made archaic by the use of new words of Latin roots.
Over hundreds of years, these two tongues gradually merged into a common English
language. This led to differences that we have today, such as the difference between a
hearty welcome between friends; and a cordial reception in a professional setting.
Words weren't the only thing that changed with the Norman invasion. Parents started
giving their children Norman sounding names over the English names as a class statement,
hoping it would help their children get ahead in the new Norman-ruled England. The farmer
Athelrich named his child Willelme, after his new king, instead of Wilhelm. Athelrich's
wife Wolfflad named her daughter Mathilde, after king William's wife. Some people even
changed their own names, from a name like Ordgar to a name like Richard. Through this
process, a number of Anglo-Saxon names were lost in favour of their Norman cognates, and
many simply went out of use altogether.
Along with many Anglo-Saxon words and names, the Norman takeover marked the
end of the use of Runes (Futhorc) in England. The runes were a writing system, which, like
the Latin alphabet, had come from the same cradle in the Mediterranean, but had been
shaped separately in Europe over the past thousand years. The runes were mostly used for
short inscriptions, like a mark on a helmet that read, Oswin's helmet, or as a piece of
graffito while travelling, Ernwolf was here. There are a few cases where full texts were
written in both the Latin script and in the runes.
English would later go through a great vowel shift and spelling changes, changing
into what we call Middle English (ME). This is the language of Chaucer. If you try very
hard, you might be able to understand some of Chaucer in the original Middle English text,
but it's more like an outlandish tongue to New English speakers at this point. During this
time, writers begin to borrow more and more Latin and Greek words into English.
Another vowel shift happened which led to early New English, and then to New
English. Shakespeare may sound a bit confusing, but he is surely speaking a tongue we can
understand, which is why we say he writes in New English (NE).
Due to their shared roots, the nearest living tongue to English is Frisian. Although
they've been split by over thirteen centuries, and the influence of two great trespasses of
tongues, there are some words and sayings that are almost the same in both English and
Frisian. One rhyme that show their likeness is, "Butter, bread, and green cheese is good
English and good Frise." In Frisian, it's written as "Bter, brea, en griene tsiis is goed
Ingelsk en goed Frysk." and is pronounced almost the same in both languages.
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Naming Words
cer (a-ker) Acre; Field; Farmland
Aker
en (ay-en) Own
Ain
el (a-thel) High-born
Athel; Ad [FN], Adel [FN], Al [FN]
sc (ash) Ash-tree
Ash
t At
At
c (ahk) Oak
Ack, Oak
Br (bar) Bare
Bar
Br (bahr) Boar
Bur
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Beofor (beh-oh-vor) Beaver
Bever
Be (beh-oh) Bee
Bee
Bt (bowt) Help
Boot
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Brm (browm) Broom (brushwood)
Brom
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Cn (ken) Fire; Torch
Ken
Cl (klay) Clay
Clay
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Cumb (koomb) Comb (hollow; valley)
Com, Comb
D (deech) Ditch
Day
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Dun (doon) Dark; Brown; Black
Dun
Dr (door) Door
Dur
Ed (eh-ahd) Wealthy
Ed
En (eh-ahn) Fertile
En
E (eh-ee) Island
Ey
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o (ei-oh) Horse
Ee
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Ford (ford) Ford (crossing)
Ford
Fs (foos) Bold
Fus
n (yan) Magic
Yan
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ils (yils); sl (yeez-el) Hostage; Guest
Yils; Yil; Gil [FN]
Gd (gowd) Good
God, Good
Hl (hal) Healthy
El
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Hamel (hahm-el) Broken; Rugged
Hamil
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Heoru (heh-oh-roo) Sword
Heer
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Hunt (hoont) Hunt
Hunt
Ht (hwat) What
What
Ht (hweet) White
Whit
Lc (lak) Leek
Lay
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Lang (lahng) Long; Tall
Lan, Lang
Le (le-oh) Lion
Lion; Leon [FN]
Mr (mar) Well-known
Mer
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Mersc (mersh) Marsh
Mars
Mr (moor) Moor
Mor
Me (m-theh) River-Mouth
My
N (neeth) Hateful
Nith
N (nowth) Bold
Noth
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Nor (north) North
Nor, North
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Rand (rahnd) Rand (edge); Shield-rim
Rand
Rh (roogh) Rough
Row
S (sa) Sea
Sea
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Scr (sheer) Sheer; Bright
Sher, Shir
Sn (snahw) Snow
Snow
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Sti (stiy) Sty (house/hall)
Ste
S (sooth) South
South
Si (swith) Strong
Swith
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Td (teed) Tide (time; season)
Tid
Tn (toon) Town
Ton
en (theyn) Thane
Thane
e (they-oh) Servant
Thee
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orp (thorp) Town; Gathering
Thorp, Throp
r (thrth) Strong
Thrith; Trid [ON], Trude [ON]
Up (oop) Up/Above
Up
d (wahd) Woad
Od
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oh (wey-ogh); h (weegh) Blessed; Hallowed
Wee
e (weech-eh) Wich-elm
Wedg
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ine (wi-neh) Friendly; Hard-worker; Won
Win, Wina
se (wee-zeh) Wise
Wise
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Manly Names
Ackley Oak Lea (field)
Living name from the English lastname Ackley, from OE Acleah. See also Ackerley and
Oakley.
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Alfred Elf; Smart [to be] Read (wise)
Living name from OE lfrd. Borne by Alfred the Great, King of Wessex. See also Alfreda.
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Alvar Elf; Smart Army; Warrior
Living name from OE lfhere.
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Ashfred Ash-tree Free; Peaceful
NE shaping from OE scfri.
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Athelbald High-born Bold
NE shaping from OE elbeald. Borne by 8th C. King of Mercia and by 9th C. King of
Wessex.
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Athelred High-born [to be] Read (wise)
NE shaping from OE elrd. Borne by 7 C. King of Mercia, by 8th and 9th C. kings of
th
Northumbria, by 9th C. King of East Anglia, by 9th C. King of Kent and by 9th C. King of
Wessex.
Deira.
Atwater At Water
Living name from the English lastname Atwater, from OE tter.
Page 39 of 126
Atwell At [a] Well/Spring/Stream
Living name from the English lastname Atwell, from OE tille.
Atwood At Woods
Living name from the English lastname Atwood, from OE tudu.
Page 40 of 126
Bancroft Bean Croft (field)
Living name from the English lastname Bancroft, from OE Bencroft. Popularised by
American historian and ethnologist Hubert Howe Bancroft (1832-1918).
Page 41 of 126
Bentley Bent (course grass) Lea (field)
Living name from the English lastname Bentley, from OE Beonetleah. Popularised by
English car maker Bentley motors founded in 1919.
Page 42 of 126
Bernrich Bear Rich; Powerful
NE shaping from OE Beornr.
Page 43 of 126
Bertnoth Bright Bold
NE shaping from OE Beorhtn.
Page 44 of 126
Beverley Beaver Lea (field)
Living name from the English lastname Beverley, from OE Beoforleah. Used as a male
name in the 19th C. Popularised as a female name after the publication of George Barr
McCutcheon's novel, Beverly of Graustark (1904).
Page 45 of 126
Bradburn Broad Bourn (stream)
Living name from the English lastname Bradburn, from OE Brdburna.
Page 46 of 126
Brinley Burning; Fiery Lea (field)
Living name from the English lastname Brinley, from OE Brynleah.
Page 47 of 126
Burred Fort; Strong; Shielding [to be] Read (wise)
th
NE shaping from OE Burgrd. Borne by 9 C. King of Mercia.
Page 48 of 126
Cheelhey Keel; Sailor High
NE shaping from OE elhah.
Page 49 of 126
Cleveland Cliff Land
Living name from the English lastname Cleveland, from OE Clifland. Borne by American
president Grover Cleveland (1837-1908).
Page 50 of 126
Cranley Crane (the bird) Lea (field)
Living name from the English lastname Cranley, from OE Cranleah.
Page 51 of 126
Dalton Dale (valley) Town
Living name from the English lastname Dalton, from OE Dltn. Borne by the English
chemist John Dalton (1766-1844).
Page 52 of 126
Dayraven Day; Shining Raven
NE shaping from OE Drefn.
Page 53 of 126
Derwald Deer; Animal; Bold [to] Wield [power]; Ruler
NE shaping from OE Doreald.
Page 54 of 126
Edbert Wealthy Bright
Living name from OE adbeorht. Borne by 8 C. King of Northumbria and by 8th C. King
th
of Kent.
Page 55 of 126
Edsey Wealthy Winning
NE shaping from OE adsie.
Mercia.
Page 56 of 126
Eglaf Sword-edge Left; Living; Heir
NE shaping from OE Ecglf.
Page 57 of 126
Eldher Old Army; Warrior
NE shaping from OE Ealdhere.
Sussex.
Page 58 of 126
Elward Hall; Temple Warden; Powerful
NE shaping from OE Ealheard.
Page 59 of 126
Erconbert Tiw; Dear; Great Bright
th
NE shaping from OE Eorconbeorht. Borne by 7 C. King of Kent.
Page 60 of 126
Everard Boar Hard
Living name from the English lastname Everard, from OE Eoforheard. Influenced by FN
Evrard. See also Everett.
Page 61 of 126
Fleetwood Fleet/Float (stream) Woods
Living name from the English lastname Fleetwood, from OE Fletudu.
Page 62 of 126
Fredred Free; Peaceful [to be] Read (wise)
NE shaping from OE Freourd.
Page 63 of 126
Garland Gore (spear; triangular) Land
Living name from the English lastname Garland, from OE Grland.
Page 64 of 126
Godwin [a/The] God Friendly; Hard-worker; Won
Living name from the English lastname Godwin, from OE Godeine.
Page 65 of 126
Hadley Heath; Heather Lea (field)
Living name from the English lastname Hadley, from OE Hleah. Also spelled Hedley.
Page 66 of 126
Hartley Hart (stag) Lea (field)
Living name from the English lastname Hartley, from OE Heorotleah.
Page 67 of 126
Hedwolf War; Fight Wolf; Hunter
NE shaping from OE Heauulf.
Page 68 of 126
Herfred Army; Warrior Free; Peaceful
NE shaping from OE Herefri.
Page 69 of 126
Heymond High Hand; Shielding
NE shaping from OE Hahmund. See also Hammond.
Page 70 of 126
Houston Thought Town
Living name from the English lastname Houston, a compound of FN Hugh and OE tn.
Popularised by Texan general Sam Houston and his namesake town.
Page 71 of 126
Hisbert Young Man; Warrior Bright
NE shaping from OE Hysebeorht.
Page 72 of 126
Kenhard Fire; Torch; Light Hard
NE shaping from OE Cnheard.
Northumbria.
Page 73 of 126
Kinhard Kingly Hard
NE shaping from OE Cyneheard.
Page 74 of 126
Langdon Long [a] Down (hill)
Living name from the English lastname Langdon, from OE Langdn.
Page 75 of 126
Leefstan Lief (dear); Leman Stone
NE shaping from OE Lofstn.
Page 76 of 126
Ludher Loud (well-known) Army; Warrior
NE shaping from OE Hldhere.
Page 77 of 126
Merhard Well-known Hard
NE shaping from OE Mrheard.
Page 78 of 126
Mycroft River-Mouth Croft (field)
Living name from the English lastname Mycroft, from OE Mecroft. Popularised by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Page 79 of 126
Nothard Bold Hard
NE shaping from OE Nheard.
Page 80 of 126
Ordhey Spear-tip High
NE shaping from OE Ordhah.
Page 81 of 126
Oslaf One of the gods; Woden Left; Living; Heir
NE shaping from OE slf.
Page 82 of 126
Pilhard Pile (spike); Arrow Hard
NE shaping from OE Plheard.
Page 83 of 126
Radford Red Ford (crossing)
Living name from the English lastname Radford from OE Redford. Also spelled Redford.
Page 84 of 126
Raoul [to be] Read (wise) Wolf; Hunter
Living name brought by the Normans, from WG Radulf. See also Ralph and Redwolf.
Page 85 of 126
Reynold Mighty; Advice Army
Living name brought by the Normans, from FN Reinalt, from WG Raginald. Replayed OE
cognate Reeneald. See also Rainwald, Reginald and Ronald.
Page 86 of 126
Roderick Great; Well-known Rich; Powerful
Living name brought by the Normans, from WG Hrodric. Replaced OE cognate Hrr.
Went out of use after the Middle Ages, brought back in the 19th C. Popularised by Sir Walter
Scott's poem, The Vision of Don Roderick (1811). See also Rodrich.
Page 87 of 126
Roosevelt Rose Field
Living name from the Dutch lastname Roosevelt. OE cognate would be Rsefeld.
Popularised by United States presidents Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) and Franklin D.
Roosevelt (1882-1945).
Page 88 of 126
Saxred Knife; Saxon [to be] Read (wise)
th
NE shaping from OE Seaxrd. Borne by 7 C. King of Essex.
Page 89 of 126
Selred Hall [to be] Read (wise)
th
NE shaping from OE Selerd. Borne by 8 C. King of Essex.
Page 90 of 126
Shafter Shaft; Spear Army; Warrior
NE shaping from OE Sceafthere.
Page 91 of 126
Sidney Wide Nigh/Near; Island
Living name from the English lastname Sidney, from OE Sdnah. Also spelled Sydney.
Page 92 of 126
Stanley Stone Lea (field)
Living name from the English lastname Stanley, from OE Stnleah.
Page 93 of 126
Sutcliff South Cliff
Living name from the English lastname Sutcliff, from OE Sclif.
Page 94 of 126
Swithnoth Strong Bold
NE shaping from OE Swn.
Page 95 of 126
Thrithwolf Strong Wolf; Hunter
NE shaping from OE rulf.
Page 96 of 126
Tidhey Tide (time; season) High
NE shaping from OE Tdhah.
Page 97 of 126
Tonbert Town Bright
NE shaping from OE Tnbeorht.
Page 98 of 126
Truman True; Trustworthy Man
Living name from the English lastname Truman, from OE Tryemann.
Page 99 of 126
Wakeley Waking; Watchful; Festive Lea (field)
Living name from the English lastname Wakeley, from OE acasleah.
Ais tu wil bG