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Blaca

Discussion of the name

The masculine Old English name Blaca is recorded only once before DB, as a person commemorated at Durham in the earliest part of the Liber Vitae (LVD: II, 169; von Feilitzen 1937: 203). The spelling Blache serves to distinguish this, the weak form of the name, from the strong form Blæc (Blac, Blach) and from the equivalent Scandinavian name, ON Blakkr (Blacre, Blac) (Blacher). Although the simplest of scribal errors would have confused the names, in practice there is no possibility of mixing up the TRE landowners called Blaca and Blæc.

The adjective which forms the name was almost certainly OE blæc (‘black, dark’), referring principally to hair colour, rather than OE blāc (‘bright, shining; pale’) (von Feilitzen 1937: 203).

Bibliography

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: Blache

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Blaca

  Phillimore edition: Black

  Alecto edition: Blaca

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
Shire Hertfordshire	Phil. ref. 10,17	Vill Aldenham	DB Spelling Blache	Holder 1066 Blaca, man of St Alban	Lord 1066 Ecgfrith, abbot of St Albans	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Paul, abbot of St Albans	1086 Subtenant Geoffrey de Bec	Fiscal Value 1.00	1066 Value 1.00	1086 Value 0.60	Confidence A	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

People of this name

• Blaca 2 - Blaca man of St Alban, fl. 1066