Hemming

Male
CPL
4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Hemming is a masculine name probably of Scandinavian origin (ON Hemmingr), and regarded as originally a byname meaning ‘skin of the shanks of a four-footed animal’. The name was used in both Denmark and Sweden at an early period (Fellows Jensen 1968: 138–9). Two Danes called Hemming were recorded in English sources in the earlier eleventh century: one was among the leaders of the fleets that attacked England in 1009 (JW: II, 462–3), the other a son of King Cnut’s niece Gunnhild 2 who was exiled with her in 1044 (JW, II, 540–1). An East Anglian moneyer in the time of Edmund (895–918) (Heming 1 %% Hemming 4) was also likely Danish.

An alternative OE origin for Hemming as an –ing derivative of OE Hemma has been regarded as unlikely (Redin 1919: 76, 170; Fellows Jensen 1968: 288–9), though the way in which the name Hemming was deployed in Beowulf might argue to the contrary. It referred there to a kinsman of the renowned Offa, king of the Continental Angles and ancestor of the Mercian kings, in an allusive way that required the poem’s audience to be familiar with the idea that Hemming was the name of someone closely connected with the Continental ancestors of the English (Beowulf, lines 1944, 1961).

Gunnhild 2, Cnut’s niece, was associated with Worcester cathedral priory (Hemming, 251–2). The use of the name Hemming in her family thus perhaps provides a context for the naming around the time she was still in England of two Hemmings who appear at Worcester towards the end of the century: the monk who compiled the monastic cartulary known by his name (Hemming 1; Mason 2004) and a burgess of Worcester (Hemming 2).

The spelling Haiminc found in one of the five instances in Sussex led Forssner (1916: 140) to construe the name there as Continental Germanic, a derivation followed by von Feilitzen (1937: 283) even though he recognized that Haiminc was the same person as Haminc, a spelling which he otherwise, and rightly, assigned to the name Hemming. In fact the DB form is probably a scribal error either in GDB itself or in some earlier recension of the entry in question: the mistaken addition of an extra minim to a run of six in the middle of the name.

Bibliography

Beowulf, with the Finnesburg Fragment, ed. C. L. Wrenn (London: George G. Harrap, 1953)

Hearne 1723: Hemingi chartularium ecclesiæ Wigorniensis, ed. Thomas Hearne, 2 vols (Oxford, 1723)

JW: The Chronicle of John of Worcester, ed. and trans. R. R. Darlington, P. McGurk, and Jennifer Bray, II and III (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995–8)

Fellows Jensen 1968: Gillian Fellows Jensen, Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire (Copenhagen: I Kommission hos Akademisk Forlag, 1968)

Forssner 1916: Thorvald Forssner, Continental-Germanic Personal Names in England in Old and Middle English Times (Uppsala: K. W. Appelbergs, 1916)

Mason 2004: J. F. A. Mason, ‘Hemming (fl. c.1095)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

Redin 1919: Mats Redin, Studies on Uncompounded Personal Names in Old English, Inaugural Dissertation (Uppsala University, 1919)

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: Haminc; Haiminc, Haming(us)

Spellings in ICC: Hemmingus

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: CG Haiming, Heiming; ON Hem(m)ingr, ODan, Hem(m)ing, OSw Hæm(m)ing

  Phillimore edition: Haming (Bucks.), Heming (Cambs., Notts., Suss.), Hemingr

  Alecto edition: Hemming

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
Buckinghamshire 23,3 Hitcham - Hemming 'of Marlow', king's thegn Edward, king Miles Crispin Roger 'the man of Miles Crispin' 3.00 2.50 2.00 B Map
Buckinghamshire 23,3 Hitcham Hamingus Hemming 'of Marlow', king's thegn Edward, king Miles Crispin Ralph 'the man of Miles Crispin' 3.00 2.50 2.00 B Map
Buckinghamshire 23,4 Marlow - Hemming 'of Marlow', king's thegn Edward, king Miles Crispin Roger 'the man of Miles Crispin' 4.31 2.00 1.50 B Map
Buckinghamshire 23,4 Marlow Haming Hemming 'of Marlow', king's thegn Edward, king Miles Crispin Ralph 'the man of Miles Crispin' 4.31 2.00 1.50 B Map
Cambridgeshire 14,40 Shepreth Haminc Hemming 'of Shepreth' Edward, king Alan, count Reynold 'of Shepreth' 0.38 0.40 0.40 A Map
Gloucestershire 64,2 Cherington Haminc Hemming 'of Marlow', king's thegn Edward, king Miles Crispin Geoffrey 'the man of Miles Crispin' 2.00 4.00 4.00 B Map
Lincolnshire 31,11 Branston Haminc Hemming 'of Blankney', king's thegn - Walter d'Ancourt - 12.00 20.00 26.00 B Map
Lincolnshire 31,16 Blankney Haminc Hemming 'of Blankney', king's thegn - Walter d'Ancourt unnamed knights of Walter d'Ancourt 24.00 6.00 7.50 B Map
Lincolnshire T5 - Haminc Hemming 'of Blankney', king's thegn - - - 0.00 0.00 0.00 B Map
Nottinghamshire 11,26 Granby Haminc Hemming 'of Blankney', king's thegn - Walter d'Ancourt - 1.50 12.00 20.00 B Map
Sussex 10,19 Sherrington Haminc Hemming 'of Exceat' Edward, king Robert, count of Mortain Hemming 5.00 3.00 2.00 A Map
Sussex 10,29 Exceat Haminc Hemming 'of Exceat' Edward, king Robert, count of Mortain Hemming 4.50 4.00 3.00 A Map
Sussex 10,46 Frog Firle Haminc Hemming 'of Exceat' Godwine, earl Robert, count of Mortain Hemming 2.00 1.50 1.00 A Map
Sussex 10,6 Chollington Haiminc Hemming 'of Exceat' Edward, king Robert, count of Mortain Hemming 2.00 2.00 1.50 A Map
Sussex 12,10 Rottingdean Haminc Hemming 'of Exceat' Godwine, earl William de Warenne Hugh fitzRanulph 2.00 2.00 3.00 A Map
Totals

Lord 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
Buckinghamshire 23,15 East Claydon Haming 2 men of Hemming Hemming Miles Crispin 2 Englishmen 2.00 1.00 1.00 B Map
Lincolnshire 31,12 Walcot - - Hemming Walter d'Ancourt - 4.00 0.00 0.00 B Map
Lincolnshire 31,13 Timberland - - Hemming Walter d'Ancourt - 5.77 0.00 0.00 B Map
Lincolnshire 31,14 Kirkby Green - - Hemming Walter d'Ancourt - 7.50 0.00 0.00 B Map
Lincolnshire 31,18 Metheringham - - Hemming Walter d'Ancourt Winterhard 'of Metheringham' 8.50 3.00 4.00 B Map
Lincolnshire CK14 Branston - Alsige the deacon Hemming Walter d'Ancourt - 1.13 0.00 0.00 B Map
Nottinghamshire 11,27 Barnstone - - Hemming Walter d'Ancourt - 0.50 0.00 0.00 B Map
Nottinghamshire 11,28 Langar - - Hemming Walter d'Ancourt - 0.56 0.00 0.00 B Map
Nottinghamshire 11,29 Wiverton - - Hemming Walter d'Ancourt - 0.81 0.00 0.00 B Map
Nottinghamshire 11,30 Hickling - - Hemming Walter d'Ancourt - 2.00 0.00 0.00 B Map
Nottinghamshire 11,31 Kinoulton - - Hemming Walter d'Ancourt - 0.88 0.00 0.00 B Map
Nottinghamshire 11,32 Cropwell Butler - - Hemming Walter d'Ancourt - 0.50 0.00 0.00 B 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
Sussex 10,19 Sherrington Haminc Hemming 'of Exceat' Edward, king Robert, count of Mortain Hemming 5.00 3.00 2.00 A Map
Sussex 10,29 Exceat Haminc Hemming 'of Exceat' Edward, king Robert, count of Mortain Hemming 4.50 4.00 3.00 A Map
Sussex 10,46 Frog Firle Haminc Hemming 'of Exceat' Godwine, earl Robert, count of Mortain Hemming 2.00 1.50 1.00 A Map
Sussex 10,6 Chollington Haiminc Hemming 'of Exceat' Edward, king Robert, count of Mortain Hemming 2.00 2.00 1.50 A Map
Totals