Table Of ContentWomen’s Names in Old English
Elisabeth Okasha
Studies in Early Medieval Britian
Series Editor: Joanna Story, University of Leicester, UK
About the series
Studies in Early Medieval Britain illuminates the history of Britain from the start
of the fifth century to the establishment of French-speaking aristocracies in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, for historians, archaeologists, philologists and
literary and cultural scholars.
Studies in Early Medieval Britain explores the origins of British society,
of communities, and political, administrative and ecclesiastical institutions. It
was in the early Middle Ages that the English, Welsh and Scots defined and
distinguished themselves in language, customs and territory and the successive
conquests and settlements lent distinctive Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian and
Norman elements to the British ethnic mix. Royal dynasties were established
and the landscape took a form that can still be recognised today; it was then too
that Christian churches were established with lasting results for our cultural,
moral, legal and intellectual horizons.
Studies in Early Medieval Britain reveals these roots and makes them
accessible to a wide readership of scholars, students and lay people.
About this volume
This study provides an in-depth study into the issue of vernacular names in Old
English documents. Specifically, it challenges the generally accepted notion that
the sex of an individual is definitively indicated by the grammatical gender of
their name. In the case of di-thematic names, the grammatical gender in question
is that of the second element of the name. Thus di-thematic names have been
taken as belonging to women if their second element is grammatically feminine.
However, as there are no surviving Anglo-Saxon texts which explain the
principles of vernacular nomenclature, or any contemporary list of Old English
personal names, it is by no means sure that this assumption is correct.
While modern scholars have generally felt no difficulty in distinguishing
male from female names, this book asks how far the Anglo-Saxons themselves
recognised this distinction, and in so doing critically examines and tests the
general principle that grammatical gender is a certain indicator of biological sex.
Anyone with an interest in Old English manuscripts or early medieval history
will find this book both thought provoking and a useful reference tool for better
understanding the Anglo-Saxon world.
About the author
Elisabeth Okasha is Acting Director, Language Centre, University College Cork,
Ireland.
Also in this series
Veiled Women
Volume I: The Disappearance of Nuns from Anglo-Saxon England
Sarah Foot
Veiled Women
Volume II: Female Religious Communities in England, 871–1066
Sarah Foot
Carolingian Connections
Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Francia, c. 750–870
Joanna Story
Alfred the Great
Papers from the Eleventh-Centenary Conferences
Edited by Timothy Reuter
St Wulfstan and his World
Edited by Julia Barrow and Nicholas Brooks
Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald
Edited by Stephen Baxter, Catherine Karkov, Janet L. Nelson and David Pelteret
Sustaining Belief
The Church of Worcester from c.870 to c.1100
Francesca Tinti
WOMEN’S NAMES IN OLD ENgLISH
© Elisabeth Okasha 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Elisabeth Okasha has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Okasha, Elisabeth.
Women’s names in Old English. – (Studies in early medieval Britain)
1. Names, English (Old) – Sources. 2. Names, English (Old), in literature.
3. English language – Old English, ca. 450–1100 – gender.
4. Women – History – Middle Ages, 500–1500.
I. Title II. Series
929.4’0892–dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Okasha, Elisabeth.
Women’s names in Old English / Elisabeth Okasha.
p. cm. – (Studies in early Medieval Britain)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–1–4094–0010–3 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978–0–7546–9849–4
(ebook)
1. Feminine names – great Britain – History – Anglo-Saxon period, 449–1066.
2. Names, Personal – England. 3. Names, English (Old) 4. English language – Old
English, ca. 450–1100 – Etymology – Names.
I. Title.
CS2371.g7O43 2011
929.40941–dc22 2010046650
ISBN 9781409400103 (hbk)
ISBN 9780754698494 (ebk) IV
For Yousri
Women’s Names in Old English
ELISABETH OKASHA
University College Cork, Ireland
Contents
Foreword ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Preface xiii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 general Introduction 1
1.2 Particular Questions to be Discussed 2
1.3 Previous Work in the Field 4
2 The Material 7
2.1 Sources 7
2.1.1 Reliability of the Source Material 8
2.1.2 Discussion of the Source Material 10
2.2 Editions Used 12
2.3 The Female Names 16
3 Analysis and Classification of the Material 55
3.1 Di-thematic Names 55
3.1.1 Second Elements of Di-thematic Names 55
3.1.2 First Elements of Di-thematic Names 64
3.2 Mono-thematic Names 66
3.2.1 Mono-thematic Names Corresponding to Old English
Nouns and Adjectives 67
3.2.2 Other Mono-thematic Names 68
4 Discussion of Di-thematic Names 69
4.1 general 69
4.2 Second Name-elements 70
4.2.1 Male and Female Names 73
4.3 First Name-elements 76
4.4 Conclusions 79
5 Analysis and Discussion of Mono-thematic Names 81
5.1 general 81
5.2 Identification of the Head-word 81
5.3 Origin of Names 83
5.3.1 Names whose Origins are or may be Old English Words 84
viii Women’s Names in Old English
5.3.2 Names that are Shortened Forms of Di-thematic Names 85
5.3.3 Hypocoristic Names 86
5.3.4 Nicknames 87
5.3.5 Uncertainty of Actual Origin 88
5.4 Similar Male and Female Names 89
5.5 Conclusions 90
6 Some Implications 93
6.1. Assumptions about Sex made from Personal Names 93
6.1.1 Finger-rings 93
6.1.2 Name-stones from Hartlepool 96
6.1.3 Other Inscriptions 97
6.1.4 Some Names in the Durham Liber Vitae 98
6.2 Coins and Moneyers 99
6.3 Words Used to Describe Women 101
6.4 Implications for the Presentation of the Material under
Discussion 102
7 Vernacular Names in Old English Poetry 105
8 General Discussion 109
8.1 The Naming of a Child 109
8.2 gender Specificity 110
8.3 Naming Practices at Different Periods and in Different Areas 111
8.4 The Importance of Meaning in Old English Name-elements 114
8.5 The Choice of a Personal Name 117
9 Conclusion 121
Appendix: A Brief Comparison with Some Modern Names 123
Bibliography 125
Concordances 133
Foreword
The Studies in Early Medieval Britain are intended to illuminate the history,
society and culture of the island of Britain and of its various regions between
the fifth and twelfth centuries. The series will include volumes devoted to
different aspects and phases of that long period between the collapse of Roman
imperial authority and the establishment of French-speaking aristocracies in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries. It is a forum for interdisciplinary collaboration
between historians, archaeologists, philologists, literary and cultural scholars
that respects the differences between their diverse disciplines, and facilitates
communication between them. A very substantial body of evidence survives
from the Early Middle Ages, but much of it is fragmentary and scattered across
a wide range of scholarly domains. The task of early medievalists is to master
the necessary technical skills and to convey the fascination of their subject.
There is a large public, lay and academic, whose interest in the origins of our
society, culture and institutions has been whetted at school, college or university,
by local studies, in adult education, by dramatic archaeological discoveries
or through television programmes. Studies in Early Medieval Britain seek
to reach this public by eschewing inaccessible jargon and by interpreting the
early medieval past with the help of good illustrations. We aim to maintain
the highest standards of scholarship and exposition. The series is therefore
open both to works of general synthesis and to monographs by specialists in
particular disciplines attempting to reach a wider readership. It also includes
collaborative studies by groups of scholars.
It is a great pleasure to include in the series Professor Elisabeth Okasha’s
Women’s Names in Old English. Her volume is a welcome addition that extends
the range of the series into historical linguistics, philology and onomastics.
Focusing on the evidence that survives for women’s names in the vernacular
language of early England she provides a lucid and concise analysis of naming
practices among the Anglo-Saxons, challenging long held assumptions that link
the grammatical gender of the names with biological sex. Her study provides
a linguistic analysis of the structure of the names that seem to have been used
for women; her evidence derives from a variety of types of contemporary
evidence, mostly in manuscript form but also from inscriptions on stone and
metal. By focusing on Women’s Names, Okasha delineates a concise corpus
of evidence; fewer than 300 are recorded. But this enables her to draw
innovative and interesting conclusions that challenge linguistic assumptions
and historical preconceptions. As such, her book is an important contribution
to our understanding of society in Anglo-Saxon England, of women in that
society, and of scholars’ approaches to evidence that might at first sight seem
