At 12:20:16 AM on Wednesday, May 6, 2009, llama_nom wrote:

> You might have some people with Scandinavian names who
> spoke English but were well aware of their Danish
> ancestry, and others more remotely related to Danes who
> had Scandinavian names, or even people with names that had
> become so widespread in England that no one realised they
> were any different from native English names.

A very good candidate for this is <Orm>, from ON <Ormr>.
Similarly, <Ketill> appears as Old English <Cytel>. I've
also seen an OE <Cytelbearn>, from ON <Ketilbiörn>, ODan
<Ketilbiorn>, but these weren't so common, and I don't know
how likely it is that they were considered completely normal
parts of the name stock.

> The languages were similar on many points, and there was
> no science of etymology to pick apart the sound-changes.

Though it's clear that some of them were recognized and
allowed for when Scandinavian names were borrowed into Old
English, since the proper substitutions were often made.

A few more that I've seen in the charter Sawyer 1448a from
ca. 985: <Fastolf> (from OEScand. <Fastulf>, corresponding
to ON <Fastúlfr>), <Grim> (from <Grímr>), <Grymkytel> (from
<Grímketill>), <Gunna> (probably from ON <Gunni>,
substituting the OE masculine weak ending <-a> for its ON
equivalent <-i>), <Hundulf> (from <Hundulfr>), <Osbern>
(from <Ásbiörn>, with substitution of the OE cognates of the
two elements), <Osgot> (from <Ásgautr>), <Saxa> (probably a
borrowing of ON <Saxi>), <Steigncytel> (from <Steinketill>),
<Sumerlyda> (from <Sumarliði>, <Ulf> (from ON <Úlfr>),
<Þurferð> (from ON *<Þorfrøðr>), <Þurlac> (from ON
<Þorlákr> and <Þorleikr>), and <Þur(w)old> (from ON
<Þóraldr>, earlier <Þorvaldr>.

One name that went in the other direction, by the way, is
the OE feminine name <Sun(n)gifu>, the source of ON
<Sunniva>.

Brian