Olaf

Male
DWP
4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Olaf is an Old Danish form of the Old Norse masculine name Óláfr and, like the side-form Áleifr and the archaic form Anláfr, comprised the elements *anu ‘ancestor’ and leifr ‘inheritance, son’ (von Feilitzen 1937: 335; Fellows Jensen 1968: 204; see also discussion under the head-forms Alaf, Onlaf). The use and representation of this name in pre-Conquest sources and DB are problematic, however. Scandinavian forms of the archaic name Anláfr lost the n early in the tenth century but the preceding vowel remained sufficiently nasalized for English speakers still to perceive it as An or On. By early eleventh century ‘the English may not even have recognised the ultimate identity of the name-forms Anlaf and Olaf’ (Fellows Jensen 1968: ciii). For example, the name of the Sussex moneyer Olaf 10 still occurs as Onlaf on a coin minted in 1009x1017 (Galster 1966: coin 467) and that of St Olaf was written as Onlaf but subsequently altered to Olaf in the C-text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for s.a. 1030 (annal transcribed c.1045; see O’Brien O’Keeffe 2001: xxvi-xxviii, xxxvii-xxxviii, xc, 105; cf. Plummer and Earle 1892-99: i 156-7), whereas St Olaf’s name occurs simply as Olaf in the D- and E-texts for s.a. 1028 (annals transcribed c.1080 and c.1121 respectively; see Cubbin 1996: xii, xlviii, 64; Irvine 2004: xiii, lxiv-lxxv, 75-6).

This ambiguity is continued into the DB forms, where instances such as Vnlof have been interpreted by some scholars as representing Olaf in its archaic form (e.g. von Feilitzen 1937: 335) and by others as erratic forms of the Old English name Wulfnoth (e.g. Dodgson 1985: 49; Fellows Jensen 1985: 34-5), although elsewhere the GDB scribe is remarkably consistent in rendering Wulfnoth as Vlnod(us) and corrects the forms from Exon accordingly (see under head-form Wulfnoth). The matter is discussed in more detail elsewhere (Probert: forthcoming). For present purposes it is considered that an insular, Anglo-Scandinavian form Onlaf may have existed until the mid-eleventh century. DB forms such as Vnlof (which include all those that von Feilitzen considered to be TRE instances of Óláfr) are therefore addressed under the head-forms Onlaf and Wulfnoth as appropriate. The present head-form Olaf, by contrast, addresses those DB forms (Olaf in DB, Oilaf in Exon) that represent the usual Scandinavian development of the name, which the DB scribe clearly perceived as different from the name he represented as Vnlof.

There are ten entries for Olaf the PASE corpus, of whom Olaf 1-8 represent Scandinavian leaders and kings occurring between 853 and 1066, Olaf 9 is a catch-all for occurrences in DB and Olaf 10 was a Lewes moneyer active 1009-1017. St Olaf (Olaf 7) occurs in DB and Exon (196a1), with the forms Olaf and Oilaf(o) respectively, as the dedication of a church in Exeter.

Bibliography

Cubbin 1996: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition. Volume 6: MS D, ed. G. P. Cubbin (Cambridge, 1996)

Dodgson 1985: J. McN. Dodgson, ‘Some Domesday personal-names, mainly post-Conquest’, Nomina 9 (1985), 41-51

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

Fellows Jensen 1985: G. Fellows Jensen, ‘On the identification of Domesday tenants in Lincolnshire’, Nomina 9 (1985), 31-40

Galster 1966: G. Galster, Royal Collection, Copenhagen. Part II. Anglo-Saxon Coins: Æthelred II, Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles 7 (London, 1966)

Irvine 2004: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition. Volume 7: MS E, ed. S. Irvine (Cambridge, 2004)

O’Brien O’Keeffe 2001: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition. Volume 5: MS C, ed. K. O’Brien O’Keeffe (Cambridge, 2001)

Plummer and Earle 1892-99: Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ed. C. Plummer and J. Earle, 2 vols (Oxford, 1892-99)

Probert forthcoming: D. Probert, ‘Some ambiguities and identifications among Domesday names’ (forthcoming).

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: Olaf

Spellings in Exon: Oilaf(o)

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Óláfr

  Phillimore edition: Olaf

  Alecto edition: Olaf

Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

Tenant-in-Chief 1086 demesne estates (no subtenants)

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
Northamptonshire 60,3 Weldon Olaf - - Olaf - 0.25 0.10 0.15 B 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
Middlesex 7,4 Harlington Olaf Wigot of Wallingford - Roger, earl Olaf 4.00 3.20 2.00 B Map
Middlesex 7,4 Harlington Olaf 1 sokeman Wigot of Wallingford Roger, earl Olaf 1.00 0.80 0.50 B Map
Sussex 9,10 Foxearle hundred Olaf Hernetoc 'of Foxearle' - Robert, count of Eu Olaf 0.13 0.50 0.50 B Map
Totals