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My Neighbour who lives in opposite from me - is a Mrs Thornton - surely that might be a Viking name
I must make a note of these - print off maybe - this would be an interesting addition to my studies
I hope to be back working with this group in the not-too-distant Future
Kveðja
Patricia
-------Original Message-------
Saell again.
English Surname "Thorburn" may have descended from Thorbjorn I believe
it seems likely
Indeed, it is. And Thursten or Thurstin is from ON Thorsteinn. Names
that took the prfix Thor- were extremely popular during the Viking Age
proper, but only among heathen Scandinavians. About 1 of 4 names Norse
settlers in the Icelandic Landnamabok had the element in their name,
either as Thor- or -thorr. This reflects Norwegian conditions, but the
names were also extremely common in Denmark and Sweden. A few did not
make it to Iceland (Thormarr, etc.), as they were typically borne by
the East Norse, although Thormar was later adopted in Iceland also.
Other Germanics were Christian at the time, and did not share in the
wildly popular develpoment of the Thor-element in personal names, even
if they still had many heathen names from their own forefathers in use.
Osbourne is, for instance, an English name, which would have come to
England with the Anglo-Saxon settlers, who bore name in Os-, Elf- and
so forth, but apparently not in Thunor-. They believed in the OE god
Thunor, and worshipped this god, likely fervently, but it appears that
only the more generic, abstract god-names that could refer to any god
were typically used by Germanic in general. In Proto-Norse were have
attested Ansugastiz and Ansugislaz, two men's names unattesed in ON,
despite ON names with the prefix As- (But compare Thorgestr, Torgisl ot
Thorgils). These are beautiful names, but after the conversion one
would not expect them to be re-introduced, and, indeed, they were not,
even if the real thing (they are). No one knows why the Thor- element
took over with such fervour, or even when this development began. Our
Proto-Norse sources are so few, that although the element does not
occur there in personal names, we cannot say that it did not occur. But
it is clear from comparative Germanic evidence that the popularity of
the element Thor- in personal names in an ON development, and rooted in
the then current religion, later made obsolete. It is simply due to
their extreme popularity that these names survive at all in Christian
times, when almost all heathen names are lost. One can understand the
mindset when one considers that one of the greatest authorites on
nordic names in modern times, the Norwegian scholar Eivind Vagslid,
insists on intrepreting the element as meaning something like tough,
brave, enduring, etc., following some fancy about how the Norse were
simply innocent fishermen and farmers with no religion, who happily and
willingly saw the light and became Christian at the mere mention of the
word. I wonder how folk in midieaval times dealt with these names?
Anyway, I think we need to be objective in looking at this material,
and in this case admit that some ON god *Thorr was at least somewhat
popular during the Viking Age! But let us not forget, the second
element is the main element, and not all names compound with Thor- as a
prefix or -thorr as a suffix. The overwhelming, extreme majority of ON
names do not. That is another reason why we need to look first at the
basic, one-element names to understand them, and their way of seeing
the world. ON could do wonderful things with suffixes, as we will see,
and even though this was dying out in ON, being truly active in Proto
Norse, ON could still work magic with suffixes when it wanted too.
-Konrad
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