Orc

Male
CPL
4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Orc is a masculine name of evidently Scandinavian origin documented outside Domesday Book, though its derivation is at present unknown (von Feilitzen 1937: 335).

It is best known as the name of a housecarl who flourished in the service of both Cnut and Edward the Confessor between 1024 and 1053 × 1058 (Orc 1; Stenton 1932: 121 note 4; Harmer 1952: 576). A charter of Edward’s granting him land in 1044 called him ‘my faithful thegn who, following the custom of his own people, took the name Orc from infancy’ (meo fideli ministro qui juxta sue proprie gentis consuetudinem ab infantile etate nomine accepit Orc). That unusual apologetic introduction was probably thought necessary by a learned scribe who was aware that the Classical Latin proper noun Orcus (rendered orc in an English glossary) was the name of the Underworld (and used metonymically for death).

The name Orc also appears in Swedish place-names (von Feilitzen 1937: 335) and as a patronymic (Orkasonr) cut in runes by a twelfth-century treasure-hunter on the walls of the prehistoric burial chamber of Maeshowe in Orkney (Farrer 1862: no. VI; Barnes 1993: esp. 366).

Bibliography

Barnes 1993: Michael P. Barnes, ‘The interpretation of the runic inscriptions of Maeshowe’, The Viking Age in Caithness, Orkney and the North Atlantic: Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Eleventh Viking Congress, Thurso and Kirkwall, 22 August–1 September 1989, ed. Colleen E. Batey, Judith Jesch, and Christopher D. Morris (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993), 349–69

Farrer 1862: James Farrer, Notice of Runic Inscriptions discovered during recent excavations in the Orkneys (Ingleborough, Yorks.: privately printed, 1862)

Harmer 1952: F. E. Harmer, Anglo-Saxon Writs (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1952)

Stenton 1932: F. M. Stenton, The First Century of English Feudalism, 1066–1166 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932)

von Feilitzen 1937: Olof von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book, Nomina Germanica 3 (Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells, 1937)

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Orcus

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Orcus

  Phillimore edition: Orcus

  Alecto edition: Urk

Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

Holder 1066

Shire Phil. ref. Vill DB Spelling Holder 1066 Lord 1066 Tenant-in-Chief 1086 1086 Subtenant Fiscal Value 1066 Value 1086 Value Conf. Show on Map
Surrey 1,5 Merton Orcus Orc, man of Earl Harold Harold, earl William, king Orc 2.00 1.00 1.00 A Map
Totals

Subtenant in 1086

Shire Phil. ref. Vill DB Spelling Holder 1066 Lord 1066 Tenant-in-Chief 1086 1086 Subtenant Fiscal Value 1066 Value 1086 Value Conf. Show on Map
Surrey 1,5 Merton Orcus Orc, man of Earl Harold Harold, earl William, king Orc 2.00 1.00 1.00 A Map
Totals

People of this name