7. Scandinavian Place-Names.

Among the most notable evidences of the extensible 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, with name sending in –by, nearly all of them in the district occupied by the Danes who settled in England, we have a great evidence of the number of Danes who settled in England.These names all contain the Danish word –by, meaning “farm” or “town”. Some 300 names like Althorp, Bishopsthorpe and Linthorpe contain the Scandinavian word thorp (village). 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 Jonhson, conform to a Scandinavian custom, the equivalent of Old English patronymic being –ing, as in Browning.