Colsege

Male
DWP
4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Colsege is clearly a garbled form of a probably Scandinavian or Anglo-Scandinavian masculine name or byname.  The first element ‘col’ is capable of several interpretations, not only in Old Norse or Old Danish or but also in Old English, Continental Germanic or even Old Irish, so attention must focus on the second element.  The DB form ‘sege’ makes no sense as it stands and the suggestion by von Feilitzen (1937: 218) that it could represent ON sveinn would require that both /w/ and /n/ were unrepresented orthographically, which is improbable and not evidenced in other DB forms for sveinn (cf. ibid.: 75-6, 86, 307, 380-1).  Another possibility would be scribal error, such as the common ‘s’ for ‘f’ with ‘fege’ perhaps representing ON *feigr ‘fated to die’ (cf. ibid.: 250; Fellows Jensen 1968: 81).  The DB form does not occur in proximity to another similar form that could resolve the uncertainties, however, and so Colsege is retained as the head-form here.

Bibliography

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: Colsege

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Colsege

  Phillimore edition: Colsege

  Alecto edition: Colsege

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
Essex 23,28 Boyton Colsege Colsege 'of Boyton' - Richard fitzGilbert Swein of Essex 0.58 2.00 4.00 D Map
Totals