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Besi

Discussion of the name

Besi is a masculine name of uncertain derivation and meaning but is best explained as a development of Old Danish Bøsi (von Feilitzen 1937: 201; Ekwall 1960: 35; Fellows Jensen 1968: 70); there is also one instance in DB where Besi occurs as a spelling for the name Bisi.

The only entry in the PASE corpus is for Besi 1, a catch-all for occurrences in DB.

Bibliography

Ekwall 1960: Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, 4th edn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960)

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

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: Beso, Besy

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Besi

  Phillimore edition: Besi, Bosi

  Alecto edition: Besi, Bosi

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 Lincolnshire	Phil. ref. 56,18	Vill Whitwell	DB Spelling Besy	Holder 1066 Besi 'of Whitwell'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Judith, countess	1086 Subtenant Herbert 'of Whitwell'	Fiscal Value 1.00	1066 Value 2.00	1086 Value 2.00	Confidence C	Map
Shire Rutland	Phil. ref. 2,13	Vill Whitwell	DB Spelling Besy	Holder 1066 Besi 'of Whitwell'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Judith, countess	1086 Subtenant Herbert 'of Whitwell'	Fiscal Value 1.00	1066 Value 2.00	1086 Value 2.00	Confidence C	Map
Shire Suffolk	Phil. ref. 35,7	Vill Wortham	DB Spelling Beso	Holder 1066 Besi 'of Gislingham'	Lord 1066 Wulfwine, antecessor of Aubrey de Vere	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Aubrey de Vere	1086 Subtenant Adelelm the man of Aubrey de Vere	Fiscal Value 0.04	1066 Value 0.13	1086 Value 0.13	Confidence B	Map
Shire Suffolk	Phil. ref. 6,216	Vill Gislingham	DB Spelling Beso	Holder 1066 Besi 'of Gislingham'	Lord 1066 Alsige nephew of Earl Ralph	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Robert Malet	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 0.13	1066 Value 0.33	1086 Value 0.33	Confidence B	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

People of this name

• Besi 2 - Besi ‘of Whitwell’ (Rut.), fl. 1066
• Besi 3 - Besi ‘of Gislingham’ (Suff.), fl. 1066