A history of the English Language

73.
Scandinavian Place-Names.
Among the most notable evidences of the extensive Scandinavian settlement in England 
is the large number of places that bear Scandinavian names. When we find more than 600 
places like 
Grimsby, Whitby, Derby, Rugby,
and 
Thoresby,
with names ending in -
by,
nearly all of them in the district occupied by the Danes, we have a striking evidence of 
the number of Danes who settled in England. For these names all contain the Danish 
word 
by,
meaning ‘farm’ or ‘town’, a word that is also seen in our word 
by-law
(town 
law). Some 300 names like 
Althorp, Bishopsthorpe, Gawthorpe,
and 
Linthorpe
contain 
the Scandinavian word 
thorp
(village). An almost equal number contain the word 
thwaite
16 
The 
k
in this could be accounted for on the basis of the oblique cases, but it is more 
probably due to Scandinavian influence. It is possible that the retention of the hard 
k
and 
g
is due to Anglian rather than Scandinavian tendencies. 
A history of the english language 88

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(an isolated piece of land)—
Applethwaite, Braithwaite, Cowperthwaite, Langthwaite, 
Satterthwaite
. About a hundred places bear names ending in 
toft
(a piece of ground, a 
messuage)—
Brimtoft, Eastoft, Langtoft, Lowestoft, Nortoft
. Numerous other 
Scandinavian elements enter into English place-names, which need not be particularized 
here. It is apparent that these elements were commonplace in the speech of the people of 
the Danelaw. It has been remarked above that more than 1,400 Scandinavian place-names 
have been counted in England, and the number will undoubtedly be increased when a 
more careful survey of the material has been made. These names are not uniformly 
distributed over the Danelaw. The largest number are found in Yorkshire and 
Lincolnshire. In some districts in these counties as many as 75 percent of the place-names 
are of Scandinavian origin. Cumbria contributes a large number, reflecting the extensive 
Norse settlements in the northwest, while Norfolk, with a fairly large representation, 
shows that the Danes were numerous in at least this part of East Anglia. It may be 
remarked that a similarly high percentage of Scandinavian personal names has been 
found in the medieval records of these districts. Names ending in -
son,
like 
Stevenson
or 
Johnson,
conform to a characteristic Scandinavian custom, the equivalent of Old English 
patronymic being -
ing,
as in 
Browning
.