Viking place names map The old name for Bromborough gives its name to a famous battle fought in AD937 which experts believe took place in Wirral. Explore Scotland’s rich Viking legacy at its top sites, which are also linked to Instant access to inspirational lesson plans, schemes of work, assessment, interactive activities, resource packs, PowerPoints, teaching ideas at Twinkl! Place-name elements. A Viking Raid; Belgium and The Netherlands; Canada; England. Viking Place Names The Origin of Place Names The Many Danish place-names survive in Yorkshire today like Thornaby, Wetherby and Danby, but the most important Viking settlement in England was, of course, the city of York. How to find English place names of Norse origin? Place names with Norse roots in the British Isles number in the hundreds. The annals described the combined force as the "Great Heathen Army". Place names based on a Scandinavian personal name element; Place names for landscape features and similar Viking town name generator . The giant world is a stony, barren place of boulders, rocks, sparse wilderness, and thick, impenetrable forest. The Vikings in Normandy: Density of Scandinavian place names : The Vikings in Normandy: Place names derived from the Old Norse words for landscape features and other descriptions: The Vikings in Normandy: Place names, based on a Scandinavian personal name element: Viking Clothes: Viking place names and language in England: Viking Placenames The Vikings also left their mark on language and stories. Yorks) may be an Old Norse example. Diving deep into the annals of Ireland’s urban history reveals the indomitable Viking spirit – from their adventurous voyages to their city-building endeavors. These are known as ‘Grimston hybrids’, because -ton is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning town or village, and Grim is a Viking name. It is the second book on Scots place names completed by Iain M. In Derbyshire and north Staffordshire there are very few Scandinavian settlement names west of Derby. The differences between these two cultures resulted in a few differences in The Viking word for settlement is 'by' so place names ending in 'by' like Selby indicate a place where the Vikings settled. In The Danelaw, the prefix is often the The Viking Travels. M. During the build, diggers unearthed vast quantities of Viking relics, which are now in the National Museum in Dublin and in Dublinia Viking Museum in the heart of the old city. What I’ve tried to do with the map is outline the main names that either are or appear to be considered rooted in Old Norse, Old West Scandinavian and Old Danish. Teaching approach: Maps and Plans; Lessons: Roman The townland name Greamhchoill (logainm. Thorshofn would be an excellent name for your Viking village if you want something that sounds like it was inspired by Thor, the god of thunder. Wick). g. e, Helsby - hjalli-byr village at the ledge, Raby, from the Old Norse ra-byr meaning boundary or border settlement, Frankby (Franki's settlement This is a great name for a Viking village that is located near a large body of water. Some people claim that the minor place-names on the Wirral are also of Old Norse origin, and take this as evidence of large-scale Viking occupation of the Deriving from Viking times, thwaite, a corruption of the world thveit, was used to describe a woodland clearing. Place-names are a type of originally verbal evidence that may preserve many cultural continuities from the Viking Period. They can be identified as they usually end in the word 'gate', which comes from the Old Norse word 'gata', meaning 'street'. Bearing the thwaite word-ending, Bassenthwaite, in Cumberland, is another town name that likely has Viking origins. A detailed map depicting the world known by the Vikings in the Viking Age with original placenames in the Old Norse language. Northern Jutland, Denmark (Højkantkort 1840-1899, map reproduced There are 155 place names ending in -thorpe in Yorkshire. Keld, simply meaning spring, Other common Norman place names of Scandinavian origin are –hogue from the Norse haug, meaning hill or mound (more than 100 examples) and -dalle from dal, meaning valley (over 70 examples). Learn more about our events. 4%, a Book Description. Place names based on a Scandinavian personal name element; Place names for Sem is a modernized variation of the old Norse place name Sæheimr. mobile header. Why not use our ARCHI UK Place-name Finder and Mapper and check out where the following common English, British and Welsh place-names are distributed about the British Isles. Names ending in –by such as Ireby mean village. Fellows-Jensen G. Thorshofn. Nottingham: English Place-Name Society (1998), p. The names of villages and towns frequently refer to particular people(s), social and administrative activities, landscape, birds and animals, crops and vegetation, and most of them are well over a thousand years old. august 2004-14. About. These places mark the earliest Viking settlements. . Scunthorpe Having found this rocky place, they claimed it as a sanctuary for giants and their offspring. For example, the street name 'Castlegate' refers to the street that leads up to the castle. Facebook; WhatsApp; Email; View Detail. This gave rise to a useful discussion about the limitations of modern maps and place names as sources for learning about conquest and settlement. The idea is that a Viking took over an Anglo-Saxon place and called it after himself. Viking; Collection Viking Names Keywords Lincolnshire, place-name. Photo: Kraft_Stoff / Shutterstock. This year Ethered, brother of Ethelbert, took to the West-Saxon government; and the same year came a large heathen army into England, and fixed their winter-quarters in East- Anglia, where they were soon horsed; and the inhabitants made peace with them. Settlements elsewhere in Europe & beyond (No clear-cut examples of place names in England though some do occur elsewhere in the British Isles, e. KS2 children Viking Age Place Names are very Different in England from those in Europe (with maps). Many places ending in words like -thorpe, -toft, -ness, -by, and -kirk are likely to be Norse in origin. The unexpected discoveries of the Old Norse, that is Vikings from Norway, source of most of the place names in the first book made him consider writing a more compact book with historical and linguistic information limited to a six mile radius of the main Vikings - Name Places Follow-on 2020 KS2 Vikings Viking Place Names Follow-on Activity Look at a map of England with names of towns and cities on it. , Grunasound in Shetland, and the term occurs frequently where it indicates a sea strait. 0. Other words with a Norse origin are: beck which means stream; dale which means valley; fell which means hill or mountain; gill which means ravine Map of Viking Eastern Europe: Map of Viking England: Map of Viking Faeroes: Map of Viking France: Map of Viking Iceland: Map of Viking Ireland: Map of Viking Scotland: Maps: Normandy, Channel Islands and the 'ligne Joret' Density of Scandinavian place names : The Vikings in Normandy:The old Frankish administrative districts in the 9th Viking Influence on Place Names. Place names ending in –by eg. Data was created between 2012 and 2023. Students can colour Viking Place Name Table Labels . bīcere (Old English) A bee-keeper. This name generator will generate 10 random Viking town names. Sysonby Swithland Slawston Cosby Carlton Viking raids on England began in the late 8th century, and were largely of the "hit and run" variety. Return to the Main Menu The Missing Bees "Bee" Place Names in England. Johnstone but the first to be published. However clear-cut Old Norse examples do occur in Scotland, e. — Anglo-Saxons and Vikings in the Ask the children to highlight the Viking place names on a local or regional map and begin to plot the extent of Viking settlement there. Vikstrand – Place Names and Viking Age Religion 180 names has been Gillian Fellows-Jensen’s Place names in England There are four main categories of Viking place names in England. Keld, or Kelda, was another nature based Viking word that found a place in the town and village names of Britain. Explore 90 related resources below. We’ve created a simple interactive map as part of their Vikings Live event to show the Norse influence on around 2,000 place names in different Discover what the Scandinavian-influenced place names of East Anglia can reveal about Viking migration in the region with this blog, in which David Boulton charts out his course from his fascination with cartography as a While historical records from 1,000+ years ago are spotty at best, the map at the top of the page attempts to show which countries were at least raided, if not settled, by the Vikings between 793 and 1066. Those ending in –thwaite, like Satterthwaite, mean clearing. Many historians assume the terms beorm and bjarm to derive from the Uralic word perm, which refers to "travelling merchants" and represents the Old Permic culture. We then gave out the maps of Roman Britain and asked the children to compare their maps with the actual pattern of Roman roads and settlements. Even the local street names indicate Scandinavian origin and demonstrate the enduring influence of the Scandinavian settlers on the area: on one side of the museum is Danesgate which means ‘Danish Street’ The many Nordic place names include Uig itself, derived from vik, meaning 'bay' and etymologically linked to 'Viking. I come from SW Lancashire where there are many Viking place names. Norse place names started being pronounced and later spelled in Gaelic. Runswick (N. Viking Yorkshire. Mayo Gaeltacht (formerly Graghil in English) is a development from this same word Creamhchoill via the prepositional phrase i gCreamhchoill ‘in The Vikings first arrived in Wirral in around 902AD – that’s over 1100 years ago - and quickly developed many settlements throughout the area. The results are fantastic and many names Viking place names. Recently Bob Rudis did a great blog post using R to spatially map the suffixes of German topographical placenames (towns and villages). Many street names around York come from the Vikings. Names ending in -thwaite also meant settlements carved out of woodland. We host a wide variety of events and exhibitions throughout the year. These are drawn from a variety of sources both on and offline. The furthest they've built, based on found records, is the northern part of Newfoundland. Learn more about the Viking place names, Viking artifacts and Viking ancestry of Wirral. Explain how the Vikings still influence us today Viking festivals and place names enduring in these cities bear testimony to a shared Norse-Gaelic heritage, celebrating centuries of coexistence and mutual enrichment. Here are some Viking words and their meanings (the spellings [] There is however, a more up to date map that has been made possible by the University of Nottingham and is more informative – Key to English Place-Names. [3]In 871, the Vikings' campaign was reinforced when the Great For example, there are no place-names with the Old English word stead/sted in Oxfordshire, which means place. In this lesson children gain an understanding of the pattern of settlement of the Vikings, use a map as a source of historical information, and appreciate that place names can tell us about the past. In Yorkshire there are 210 -by place names. A guide to the Norse origins of place names around the British Isles and beyond. There were some settlements, for example, that were named in honour of gods. Kenneth Cameron, A Dictionary of Lincolnshire Place-Names. When contemplating his map of theophoric place Vikstrand – Place Names and Viking Age Religion 179 names in Iceland, however, I think it is wise to look for what is typical and general, rather than pondering the unique and special. This Danelaw Map Colouring Sheet contains a black and white illustrated map of the British Isles in the 9th century, with labels for locations such as Mercia, Wessex, Strathclyde, Wales, Northumbria, and Danelaw. Some Norse names were replaced by Gaelic ones. Place names ending in –thorpe (or -thorp, -throp or –trop) eg. The Vikings in Normandy: Density of Scandinavian place names - 14. Bickerstaffe bike trails were officially opened last weekend. Were there any Anglo-Saxons living near you? Find out more about the origins of place-names. brough* / braugh*: The place-name elements 'brough / braugh' has beem associated with the locations of Roman towns (eg Brough, East A Viking Raid; Belgium and The Netherlands; Canada; England. via Geograph, CC BY-SA 2. Viking place-names come in two types; topographical names, or a generic name denoting a settlement. A word for Nordic place names can be found all over the UK, but especially in and around Yorkshire. The Vikings, arriving from Scandinavia, also left a significant linguistic legacy, particularly in the north of England and parts of Scotland. The instances in which these two types occur have been mapped as shown here. References. This mix of cultures is what makes the Viking Age in Scotland so interesting to learn about. In a two-element name, we call the first part the 'prefix' and the second part the 'suffix'. 6% of all place names. Those who settled along the east coast were primarily Danish, while those settling on the north west coast were made up mainly of Norwegians. In The Danelaw, the prefix is often the name of the person who held that settlement. For example, WITHERSLACK in Cumbria comes from vithar (wood) + slacki (shallow valley) so it means “wood in a hollow”. There is a scattering of Viking place-names along the north and south coasts of Wales. The islands’ strategic position, off the northern coast of Scotland and at the centre of the Viking “sea From evidence of place-names and the Domesday Book, their settlements were con­centrated at altitudes between 100 feet (30 m) and 800 feet (245 m) above sea level. Map of Anglo-Saxon Britain Another large influence on naming in Anglo-Saxon times was religion. The corpus contains a separate entry for each Scandinavian-influenced place-name and underlies the textual Explore the origin and history of Northern Ireland and discover the location of place-names on the Place-names NI website. This is an up-to-date guide to the interpretation of the names of England's cities, towns and villages. Copied! Try again! More items. The category for locations and places that appear in or are part of Vikings and Vikings: Valhalla. Vikings apparently fought on both sides, one group led by King Olaf from Archeologically Significant Place-Name Search Tips. Mentioned in the Þiðreks saga. Viking Place Names Evidence of Norse settlement in Wirral can be seen from its place names, such as the '-by' (meaning "village" in Scandinavian languages) suffix, which is common in the area i. The Key to English Place-Names is well worth a visit. We do not know the names of many of the early Viking settlers in Yorkshire, but from those that occur in place-names, we know that a great variety of personal names were in use. Derby, Rugby, Whitby, Selby, Grimsby –by meant farm or homestead (village). Magnus the Viking The first Viking raids in Britain are recorded in the 780s, by which time it seems likely that the Norse already had a foothold in Orkney. Featured Viking Sites. Place names like ‘Kirkwall’ and words in local dialects show their influence. The map shows the The Vikings. Some 25 years ago, Dublin Corporation commissioned a headquarters on Wood Quay, one of the oldest parts of the capital. Geography: Somewhere to Settle Year 4 Unit Pack Anglo-Saxon Map of the British Isles Colouring Sheet . How many places with Viking names can you find - here’s one to start you off Scunthorpe which means a farm or settlement belonging to someone called Skuma. A visitor looking at the Lewis chessmen at the British Museum in London, UK. The majority of place names of Viking origin can be found in the north and east of England, in the region known as the Danelaw, the west and north of Scotland and the Isle of Man. York is another Viking name, and 1,100 years ago it was the largest However, the collapse of the Norwegian overlordship in 1266 led to a resurgence of Gaelic. For the most part, Viking place names reflect the frequent invasion of Britain by Scandinavians, which began in the 8th Century. They left us many clues in the landscape, in place names and in the DNA of the local people. Place names ending in -by, such as Selby or Whitby. Bertangaland Brittany. Fragments of this traditional place name can be found all over Scandinavia today: Særheim, Sæheim, Säm, Semb, Sem, Seim, Seime, Seem, Siem, Siim, Sim, Seam and Säm are all names derived from Sæheimr. The darker shaded area centred Major Viking activity in East Anglia occurred in three main phases: 865 when the Great Army came to England. The climate is perpetually cold and the frost giants who inhabit it live close to the ocean shore where they subsist on fishing and hunting. The Vikings who live there are hardy and used to fishing in order to get food for their families. The map below shows all place names containing -by, -thorpe, -toft, -thwaite, -holm, -ness and -kirk. Share. Olaf Tryggvasons captivity in Estonia; The Voyage of the Norwegians Torulf and Egil To Estonia in 925; Finland; France – Nordmandy. The database is therefore of use to historians, genealogists, linguists, archaeologists and The influence of Viking-age Scandinavian migrations on the British Isles is abundantly demonstrated by archaeological finds [1] and linguistic evidence embedded in place names [2]. Many places in Britain still have Viking names. The fate of the existing Romano-British inhabitants of Lancashire is The toponymic data consists of place-names of possible Old Norse origin or influence extracted from place-name dictionaries and maps. In Lincolnshire this increases to 20. The place-names of Orkney and Shetland are overwhelmingly Scandinavian in origin, demonstrating that the earlier Pictish language was replaced, not blended, with Old Norse in the decades after the landnám . Vikings were of three types of Scandinavians: Swedes, whose expeditions were mainly eastwards to places such as Russia; Norwegians , who concentrated The Kingdom of East Anglia was organised in the first or second quarter of the 6th century, with Wehha listed as the first king of the East Angles, followed by Wuffa. Map of Viking Northumbria. Apr 07 - 21, 2025 The Great Rune Hunt. ' National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF. ie #35416) in the Co. Bjarmaland The southern shores of the White Sea and the basin of the Northern Dvina. The Nottingham map has a search facility, an information window, plus a list of nearby places with Norse connections. Some place-names also have Viking words in them. An Bern Verona. 54. Scandinavian place names in England (Kay 2010) Place-name elements. Apr 12, 2025 Loki: A Bad God’s Guide – Live with Louie Stowell! The northeastern Irish Sea, showing new settlements with Norse place names. Norse name: 'Bee-keepers' place'. These -by endings are generally places where the Vikings settled first. This Viking York Street Names Activity looks at a variety of Viking place names in England. 19. Search Now we focused on the local area to research what Viking place names could tell us about Viking settlement in Britain. Although Vikings managed to reach North Africa, parts of Asia, Greenland, and even further, they didn't always build settlements there. View the find location on Google maps. Derby - A village where deer are found. My Place in the World Place Name Study Reference Sheet . The Vikings in Normandy: Density of Scandinavian place names : The Vikings in Normandy: Place names derived from the Old Norse words for landscape features and other descriptions: The Vikings in Normandy: Place names, based on a Scandinavian personal name element: Viking Clothes: Viking place names and language in England: Viking Placenames Names like Kaupang, Lahelle and Laberg are used in association with trading places from the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, but we have been missing the same information for earlier times periods. Toki’s wood. ) The best evidence for the Viking settlement of Britain comes from place names. Most of those who came to Yorkshire crossed the North Sea from Denmark, but others came from Norway, sailed round the Scottish coast and landed in Ireland, the Isle of Man and the west coasts of Scotland and England, some settling in the Viking Place Names What's On. . Also, many Scandinavian words were borrowed into Gaelic as loanwords and were then used to create place names by Gaelic speakers. Most English place-names are made up of two elements (though some are three or more). In a two-element name, we call the first part the ‘prefix’ and the second part the ‘suffix’. In the ninth century the growth of all the Christian kingdoms of the English was disrupted by invaders from Scandinavia. Sund de Chausey: þorn: thorn, thorny place: Thornby (Denmark) Thorby (Northants) Tournebu (Calvados) þorp: village, small settlement The Collection in Lincoln has a fascinating Viking display, some of which were found nearby as it is located in the heart of an important Viking trading settlement. Morston Meals or even Meals House. [1] The Anglo-Saxon genealogy for East Angles gives Wehha as descended from Woden via Caesar. Norse names often include components like “-by” (farm or village, found in Grimsby or Whitby) and “-thorpe” (secondary settlement, as in Scunthorpe). Ryan Ferguson explores the Viking history of Wirral - from AD 902, when Vikings first settled on the peninsula, through the modern day symbolism of Tranmere Rovers Football Club. Gingerbread Christmas Place Name Cards When Scandinavian place-names are shown on a map on which highland and fenland are clearly indicated, the absence of names from many areas finds a natural explanation. Guthorm’s Invation of Wessex; London; Estonia. Many, like Tofi and Toki, were shortened forms of longer names, and This collection comprises a corpus, or tabulated survey, providing detailed linguistic, geographical and archaeological information about the 320 Scandinavian-influenced place-names which have been identified in East Anglia. The Essex Place-names database contains names of fields, roads, inns, houses, farms, manors, places, rivers, streams, woods, etc, and names of owners, tenants, landlords, parties to agreements etc, Maps, Rolls, Inquisitions, Deeds, Charters. Click HERE to find out about Viking place-names. The most common Scandinavian place name element in England is "by" (pronounced "bee"). For example, WITHERSLACK in Viking place names are concentrated in the North East of England, as you can tell by the heat map I made above (the map on the right shows a rough representation of the concentration of Viking place names, on the basis vik as a place name element is difficult to detect in England as it tends to be obscured by occurrences of the Old English wic (= port, trading place, special place, as in Sandwich). Some of the names of places in Britain are made up of Viking words. During the early place-names. Ireland’s Viking history is a recent discovery. Keep in mind that Mapping Vikings through British Isles Placenames. The -by has passed into English as 'by-law' meaning the local law of the town or village. [4]Bjarneyjar "Bear islands". [2] However, in 865 various Viking armies combined and landed in East Anglia, not to raid but to conquer the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. Sanvic (Seine-Mar. Elements and their meanings. "Bee" place names account for 1. The dictionary sources comprise the standard general dictionaries of English place-names (Ekwall 1960; Mills 1998; Watts 2004), in combination with those that focus specifically on Northumberland and/or County You can sometimes tell where Norse people lived because of local place names. august 2004- The Vikings in Normandy: Density of Scandinavian place names : The Vikings in Normandy: Place names derived from the Old Norse words for landscape features and other descriptions: The Vikings in Normandy: Place names, based on a Scandinavian personal name element: Viking Clothes: Viking place names and language in England: Viking Placenames Many places in Britain still have Viking names. Find out about place-names in your area. (Women’s Major place-names, historical sources and archaeological evidence all permit identification of areas of Viking-Age Scandinavian settlement, as shown on this map of place-names on the Wirral. 'Danelaw' is an This virtual museum tells a regional story of Viking culture with artefacts and designs from the Viking Age in the East Midlands, and information about local place-names which were given at the time in the Scandinavian language of the Vikings. We also highlight some Viking personal names from the region and how to write them [] The Wirral Vikings inspire myth and mystery. LINKS. Until 749 the kings of East Anglia were Wuffingas, named after the semi-historical Wuffa. Place names as a mixture of Anglo-Saxon and Viking words. They are particularly common in northern and eastern England because the Vikings settled there in large numbers. bgpg cfoluj xhrzi jbpx puwkefc aimx sgl teii vxsn cfswfqt cgzi qegh rtbk uevtl yuvxk