What were the most popular names for boys in England during the 16th century?
The most popular girls’ names in Tudor England
November 7, 2015 By
What were the most popular names for girls in England during the 16th century?
Epic (and Not-So-Epic) Names from Mallory
May 7, 2015 By
Looking for a name for your avatar? Look no further! Everyone knows Lancelot and Gawain, but here are some lesser-known names from one of my favourite books: Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte D’Arthur.
The Multilingual Origins of Medieval Irish Surnames
May 6, 2015 By
Surnames came into widespread use in Ireland at a time where five vernacular languages were in operation – Irish, English, Norse, Welsh and Norman French.
The Names of Criminals in Medieval England
October 22, 2014 By
Agnes Daythef, Henry Golichtly, Godwin Haluedeuel and Walter Litlegod – how did they get such names?
Ten Great Anglo-Saxon Girls’ Names
October 6, 2014 By
We’ve come up with our ten favourite girls’ names – if you are considering a different type of baby name, perhaps you will pick one of these!
Viking Nicknames
June 1, 2014 By
Of all the various cultures of the Middle Ages, it was probably the Norse who had the best nicknames. Ranging from the Eirik the Red to Ivar the Boneless, the Viking Age has hundreds of interesting and strange nicknames.
Boys’ Names from Medieval London (not the usual ones!)
April 30, 2014 By
Looking to go back to the Middle Ages to name your newborn son? But you don’t want to go with the names everyone knows. Try these ten names!
Girls’ Names from Medieval London (not the usual ones!)
April 29, 2014 By
Looking for that great ‘medieval’ name for your newborn daughter? Here are ten names from medieval London that you may never had heard of!
Database of UK surnames has reached 45,000 entries dating back to the Middle Ages
April 14, 2014 By
The ‘Family Names of the United Kingdom Project’, which is being carried out by a team at University of the West of England – Bristol, has reached a key milestone with the completion of the first phase of the database with 45,000 surnames researched and explained.
If the name fits: names in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fiction
June 14, 2013 By
The nomenclature within Tolkien’s novels is very carefully done, taking into consideration attributes such as etymology, symbolism, and onomatopoeia. In some instances the author has drawn from Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse, but most of his creations emerged from his own invented languages Quenya and Sindarin, the two main tongues spoken by elves.
Old Norse Nicknames
September 11, 2012 By
What role do nicknames play in expressing cultural sensitivities and ambiguities in medieval Icelandic and Scandinavian society? How did they develop and become so common especially during the medieval period?
Name borrowing among the Vikings
August 14, 2012 By
Thus sources may flow abundantly, yet I would claim that we know comparatively little about many aspects of names and naming among the Viking Age Scandinavians
Regional variation in Finnish lake and hill names
June 12, 2011 By
Regional variation in Finnish lake and hill names By Antti Leino Nordiske navnes centralitet og regionalitet (2007) Abstract: The Finnish basic map, and the database used by the National Land Survey to produce it, contains over 300 000 dicerent toponyms and over double that amount of named places. It is impossible to study the distributions […]
Name Change as a Consequence of Monastic Ownership
May 20, 2011 By
Name Change as a Consequence of Monastic Ownership By Jan Agertz Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Onomastic Sciences (2009) Abstract: The normal assumption is that old Swedish habitation names are original, and the first recorded for a farm or hamlet. There are however other examples – even medieval. The most common reason for […]
William, Agnes, among the most common names in medieval England
April 25, 2011 By
A study of personal names recorded in a major English medieval record source has revealed that ‘William’ was by far the most common name among the men listed in it. Meanwhile, ‘Alice’ and ‘Matilda’ are almost tied for most common female name. Beth Hartland, one of the Research Fellows on the AHRC-funded Henry III Fine […]
The Naming Patterns of the Inhabitants of Frankish Acre
April 10, 2011 By
The Naming Patterns of the Inhabitants of Frankish Acre By Iris Shagrir Crusades, Vol.4 (2005) Introduction: The anthroponymic method and analyses that have been developed and used in medieval studies in recent decades perceive the personal name as one of the means by which a social group may express itself. These methods enable researchers to […]
Geoffrey Plantagenet: surname inspirer
April 5, 2011 By
The nickname Plante Genest of Geffrey, count of Anjou is generally taken to have inspired Plantagenet even though this is not in evidence as a royal surname until three hundred years after his death.
Errant Plantagenets and settled Plants
April 5, 2011 By
Errant Plantagenets and settled Plants By John S. Plant Roots and Branches, Issue 19 (2000) Introduction: The royal “Plantagenets” (so called) seemingly had no need for a surname. [Around when they first ascended the throne of England in 1154, however, the “Plante Genest” nickname was used for their forebear Geoffrey, count of Anjou.] Important noble […]
Global Positioning in Medieval Ireland: Narrative, Onomastics, Genealogy
March 17, 2011 By
Global Positioning in Medieval Ireland: Narrative, Onomastics, Genealogy Melia, Daniel F. Paper given at 22nd Annual UC Celtic Studies Conference, at UCLA, March 16-19, (2000) Abstract I am mainly going to be talking here about people writing things down. I hope that by doing so, however, I can get a little closer to being able to describe […]
The Vikings And Their Victims: The Verdict Of The Names
March 15, 2011 By
British or Welsh? National Identity in Twelfth-Century Wales
February 6, 2011 By
British or Welsh? National Identity in Twelfth-Century Wales Pryce, Huw English Historical Review, Vol. 116 (2001) Abstract The names used to define countries and peoples have figured prominently in studies of how national identities were articulated in medieval Europe. Notions of identity are, after all, integrally bound up with the words used to express them. Admittedly, […]
Clare, Clere, and Clères
January 26, 2011 By
Clare, Clere, and Clères By Keith Briggs Journal of the English Place-name Society, Vol.41 (2009) Introduction: The name of Clare in Suffolk is one of the few major settlement names in East Anglia of unknown etymology. A similar mystery surrounds the Hampshire names Kingsclere, Highclere, and Burghclere, all containing the element clere which must have […]
Shetland and Orkney Island-Names – A Dynamic Group
January 18, 2011 By
Shetland and Orkney Island-Names – A Dynamic Group By Peder Gammeltoft Northern Lights, Northern Words. Selected Papers from the FRLSU Conference, Kirkwall 2009, edited by Robert McColl Millar (2010) Introduction: Only when living on an island does it become clear how important it is to know one‟s environment in detail. This is no less true […]
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