[23] Probably from the mythological kettle of the Æsir.
[24] So many different words might be suggested in this case that the meaning must be left uncertain. It is most probable that there may be an admixture.
[25] Three different words found in ancient names intermix so as to be hardly separable, viz., Anglo-Saxon wiht, strength or courage; wid, wood; and wit, wisdom.
[26] The name of Wigmore Street seems to imply a man's name Wigmore, but I do not know of it at present.
[27] Hence probably the name of the Eows, a tribe or family mentioned in the "Traveller's Song." Also probably the name Eawa, in the genealogy of the Mercian kings. The stem is represented in our names by Ewe, Yeo, and Yea, and we have also the patronymic Ewing (Euing in Domesday).
CHAPTER IV.
THE MEN WHO CAME IN WITH THE SAXONS.
The researches of Mr. Kemble, supplemented by those of Mr. Taylor, in connection with the early Saxon settlements in England, have an important bearing upon the subject of our existing surnames. Mr. Kemble was the first to call attention to the fact that very many of the names of places in England, as disclosed by the forms in which these names appear in ancient charters, consist of a personal name in a patronymic form. Some of these names consist simply of a nominative plural in ingas, as Æscingas, the sons or descendants of Æsc, others of a genitive plural in inga, with ton, ham, &c., appended, as in Billingatun, the town of the Billings, i.e. sons or descendants of Billa. These he takes to denote tribal or family settlements, forming the Anglo-Saxon "mark," consisting of a certain area of cultivated land, surrounded by a belt of pasture land enjoyed by all the settlers in common, the whole inclosed by the forest.
Of these names he has made two lists, the one derived from the names found in ancient charters, and so perfectly trustworthy, the other inferred from existing names of places which appear to be in the same form. The latter list is of course subject to considerable correction and deduction, inasmuch as it depends entirely upon the ancient forms in which these names would appear whether they would come under this category or not. Thus, if a name were anciently Billingaham, it would be "the home of the Billings," while if it were Billingham, it would simply be the home of an individual man called Billing. And in looking through this list, a few names will be found, which a comparison with his own index of place-names shows to be incorrectly assigned. Thus he infers Impingas from Impington in Cambridgeshire, and Tidmingas from Tidmington in Worcester, whereas it appears from his index that the ancient name of the one was Impintun, and of the other Tidelminctun, both being thus from the name of an individual and not of a tribe or family. Sempringham again in Lincolnshire, whence he derives Sempringas, I find to have been Sempingaham, and so used already for Sempingas. I also feel very great doubt about names taken from places ending in by, thorp, and toft, in Lincolnshire and the ancient Denelaga, as being Scandinavian, and given at a distinctly later period. Indeed I have a certain amount of distrust of all names taken from the North of England, in the absence, as far as I know, of any distinct proof in any one case. Northumberland would perhaps be the county to which, as containing the greatest number of such forms, any such doubt would the least strongly apply. Moreover, I do not feel at all sure that ing is not in some cases simply a form of the possessive, and that Dunningland, for instance, is not simply Dunn's land. This doubt is considerably strengthened when the name is that of a woman, as in Cyneburginctun (now Kemerton in Glouc). Cyneburg is certainly a woman's name, and as such could not, I should suppose—though the question is one for more experienced Anglo-Saxon scholars—form a patronymic, in which case Cyneburginctun can only be "Cyneburg's tun." And if it be so in one case, it may of course be so in others. Mr. Kemble's second list, then, requires to be used with a certain amount of caution, though in the main his deductions may be taken as trustworthy.