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Re‐evaluating English personal naming on the eve of the Conquest
Author(s) -
Chetwood James
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
early medieval europe
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1468-0254
pISSN - 0963-9462
DOI - 10.1111/emed.12298
Subject(s) - conquest , history , transformation (genetics) , genealogy , classics , literature , linguistics , ancient history , art , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , gene
Between 850 and 1150, the names of the people of England underwent a fundamental transformation. The old Germanic system of dithematic naming was replaced by a system of indivisible names in which a diminishing number of names became shared by an increasing number of people. This is often seen as one of the many consequences of the Norman Conquest, and is assumed to have gone hand in hand with a switch to continental names. Analysing three corpora of names from pre‐Conquest England, this article offers a re‐evaluation of the transformation in medieval English personal naming.