While Thursten is a no-brainer (the obvious is accurate), Thornton is not Norse but good AS: there

are 31 listings in Watts’ Cambridge Dictionary of  English Place-Names for ‘ Thornton ’ “settlement

with a thorn hedge.”   The locative is the sole source quoted by Reaney & Wilson’s Dictionary of

English Surnames—a book that tries to give all known etymologies for each surname—many have

two and some three or more; Thornton has but the one.  Damily histories may say otherwise, but

I have read far too many imaginative genealogies and name explanations: one of favorites was

‘Wooten’—so-called because he ‘wooten’ obey King George’s orders.

 

Scott

 

 

Scott Catledge,PhD/STD

Professor Emeritus (ret.)

history & languages

 

From: norse_course@yahoogroups.com [mailto: norse_course@yahoogroups.com ] On Behalf Of Patti ( Wilson )
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 12:19 PM
To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [norse_course] Re: ON Totemic personal names

 

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----- --

 

From: akoddsson

Date: 11/01/2009 17:04:11

Subject: [norse_course] Re: ON Totemic personal names

 

Saell again.

 

> I clicked Send - a trifle too soon I want to hazard a guess that our

English Surname "Thorburn" may have descended from Thorbjorn I believe

it seems likely

> Patricia

 

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 st ill 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

w ill ingly 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 w ill see,

and even though this was dying out in ON, being truly active in Proto

Norse, ON could st ill work magic with suffixes when it wanted too.

 

-Konrad

 

 

 

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