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Cniht

Discussion of the name

Cniht is an Old English masculine name derived from the word cniht ‘youth, servant, retainer’ that gave rise to the word ‘knight’, a sense that existed before c.1100.

There are only three people listed under Cniht in the PASE corpus, of whom Cniht 1 is a catch-all category for those appearing in DB and Cniht 2-3 represent early eleventh-century Cambridge moneyers. This very low frequency suggests that the name Cniht was extremely rare, and the limited Domesday evidence is in keeping with this.

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Canistre, Chenicte, Chenistre

Spellings in Exon: Canistrus, Chenistrus

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Cniht

  Phillimore edition: Knight, Knutr

  Alecto edition: Cniht

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 Devon	Phil. ref. 16,125	Vill Whitestone	DB Spelling Chenistre	Holder 1066 Cniht 'of Herstanhaia'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Baldwin the sheriff	1086 Subtenant Bernard No-Napa	Fiscal Value 0.50	1066 Value 0.25	1086 Value 0.50	Confidence B	Map
Shire Devon	Phil. ref. 16,126	Vill Maidencombe	DB Spelling Chenistre	Holder 1066 Cniht 'of Herstanhaia'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Baldwin the sheriff	1086 Subtenant Bernard No-Napa	Fiscal Value 0.53	1066 Value 0.13	1086 Value 0.25	Confidence B	Map
Shire Devon	Phil. ref. 25,28	Vill Herstanhaia	DB Spelling Canistre	Holder 1066 Cniht 'of Herstanhaia'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Goscelm of Exeter	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 1.50	1066 Value 1.00	1086 Value 1.00	Confidence A	Map
Shire Yorkshire	Phil. ref. 1W25	Vill Normanton	DB Spelling Chenicte	Holder 1066 Cniht 'of Normanton'	Lord 1066 Edward, king	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William, king	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 2.50	1066 Value 0.32	1086 Value 0.27	Confidence A	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

People of this name

• Cniht 4 - Cniht ‘of Normanton’ (Yorks.), fl. 1066
• Cniht 5 - Cniht ‘of Herstanhaia’ (Devon), fl. 1066