PASE

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Beorhtwig

Gender: Male

Author: DWP

Editorial Status: 4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Beorhtwig is an Old English masculine name comprising the elements beorht ‘bright, distinguished, pure’ and wīg ‘strife, war, valour’.

There are eight people called Beorhtwig in the PASE corpus, all but one of whom (Beorhtwig 8, a mid-tenth-century moneyer) occur in or after c.1020. This low frequency suggests that the name was rare, although the elements beorht and wīg were each used in the formation of more common names. Of the eight people in the PASE corpus, Beorhtwig 4 is a catch-all category for instances in DB while Beorhtwig 3 and 6-7 are discussed in the profiles below. The distribution of the small PASE corpus (apart from Beorhtwig 8, who is unlocated but was probably active in southern England) suggests that the use of the rare name Beorhtwig was confined almost exclusively to the area of western Wessex, whereas the limited Domesday evidence shows a slightly wider distribution.

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Bricstui, Brictui, Brictuid, Bristui, Bristuui.

Spellings in Exon: Bristuit

Spellings in FBB: Brihtuy

Forms in modern scholarship:

von Feilitzen head forms: Beorhtwig

Phillimore edition: Brictwy

Alecto edition: Beorhtwig

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