Viking place names

Many places in Britain still have Viking names. They are particularly common in northern and eastern England because the Vikings settled there in large numbers. For example, WITHERSLACK in Cumbria comes from vithar (wood) + slacki (shallow valley) so it means “wood in a hollow”.

Here are some Viking words and their meanings (the spellings have been simplified !):

Word	Meaning
AIN	one/solitary
BECK	stream
BY	farm
DALE	valley
FELL	hill
GARTH	enclosure (usually a grass paddock near to a farmhouse)
GILL/GHYLL	ravine, narrow steep-sided valley
HOLME	island or meadow field in marshland
KIRK	church
KELD	well/spring
SCAR	outcrop of bare rock
SKEL	spill/flood
STY	pathway
THORP(E)	outlying farm
THREL	slave
TOFT	cottage/house-site

Now see if you can “translate” the following place-names. Hover over the place name for the answer.

AINSTY – BECKHOLME – KIRKBY – FELKIRK – AINGARTH – SCARGILL – SKELDALE – KIRKTHORPE – THRELKELD – BECKTOFTE

These are all typically ‘northcountry’ names and would be most unusual in the south of England. Where ‘gill’ appears at the front of a name it is usually a personal name and is likely to be Saxon (e.g. Gillingham).