Æthelhelm

Male
DWP
4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Æthelhelm is an Old English masculine name comprising the elements æðele ‘noble, famous’ and helm ‘protection, helmet’.  As von Feilitzen (1937: 78-9 §62, 184) points out, the insular spelling of Æthelhelm had become reduced to Æthelm (whence DB Ailm) by c.940 and so the Adelelmus and similar forms in DB are probably derived from CG Adelelm not OE Æthelhelm.  This interpretation has been adopted here with regard to distinguishing between the two names.

Two etyma in the PASE corpus are relevant here.  There are four people listed under the name Æthelm, all from the tenth century; and there are 33 people listed under the name Æthelhelm, occurring between the early eighth and early eleventh centuries (albeit with Æthelhelm 19 being a catch-all category for those so named in DB).  The PASE corpus suggests that the use of this name was limited to southern England and mainly to the area of Wessex.

Bibliography

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: Ailm

Spellings in Exon: Ailmus

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Æðelhelm

  Phillimore edition: Aelmer  [i.e. interpreting the second element as ‑mær not ‑helm]

  Alecto edition: Æthelhelm

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
Cornwall 5,1,15 Hela Ailm Æthelhelm 'of Hela' - Robert, count of Mortain - 0.06 0.13 0.05 A Map
Totals