Cafla

Male
CPL
4 of 5

Discussion of the name

The name which DB gives as Caflo has hitherto been interpreted as the Scandinavian byname Kafli, which is evidenced only in later Norwegian sources and supposed to derive from a loan-word meaning ‘bridle-bit, clamp, hook’ (Björkman 1910: 75; von Feilitzen 1937: 301). The name is not otherwise recorded in England and occurs only once in DB, where the landowner concerned (here called Cafla 2), is very unlikely to have borne a Norse or Danish name. An alternative etymology should be sought.

The scribe of GDB exactly copied the spelling in Exon (Exon: 430b2), where it appears twice in the same entry and cannot be mistaken. Exon often used –o as the final letter of names which in other parts of the country were spelled –a, as with the relatively common names Bolla (Exon’s Bollo) and Cola (Exon’s Colo) (von Feilitzen 1937: 205, 217). If the name were are concerned with here were Cafla, it would still be unique so far as recorded Anglo-Saxon names goes, but looks more like an Old English nickname, perhaps, as Redin (1919: 141) suggested, based on the noun cæfl (‘halter, muzzle’), or even on either of the adjectives cāf (‘quick’) or cāflic (‘bold’).

Further, Cafla might be the same name as (or a variant of) Cæfel, which appears as the name of a moneyer at Ilchester (Som.) towards the end of Cnut’s reign (PASE: Cæfel 1). Ilchester is in the same shire as the Domesday holding of Cafla 2, though well over 40 miles away. Clearly we cannot be dealing with the same person but it is striking that the two similar names appear in the same part of the country. Redin (1919: 141) drew attention to the similarity of the names without making a definite connection.

Bibliography

Björkman 1910: Erik Björkman, Nordische Personennamen in England in alt- und frühmittel-englischer Zeit, Studien zur englischen Philologie 37 (Halle an der Saale, 1910; reprinted Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1973)

Redin 1919: Studies on Uncompounded Personal Names in Old English (Uppsala: A.-B. Akademska Bokhandeln, 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: Caflo

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Kafli

  Phillimore edition: Kafli

  Alecto edition: Kafle

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
Somerset 21,61 Bagley Caflo Cafla 'of Exmoor' - Roger de Courseulles Cafla 0.13 0.05 0.17 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
Somerset 21,61 Bagley Caflo Cafla 'of Exmoor' - Roger de Courseulles Cafla 0.13 0.05 0.17 A Map
Totals