Frederic

Male
CPL
4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Frederic is a masculine Continental Germanic name, cognate with the OE name Frithuric. Frithuric is reasonably well recorded until the mid tenth century (Frithuric 1–4, 6–11; DLV, II, 119) and was still in use in the late eleventh, when it was the name of a chaplain of Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester; the varied spellings of the latter’s name (Frethericus, Frithericus, Fredericus, Frideric) show the assimilation of the OE and CG names after the Conquest (Frithuric 5 and Frederic 2; Darlington 1968, pp. l–li and nos. 3–4, 52–3, 165, 259; Baker and Holt 2004: 197–200).

Of the three instances in DB assigned here to the name Frederic, the spelling Frederic could conceivably stand for Frithuric, but Fredri, without the final –c, cannot (von Feilitzen 1937: 254).

The Continental name is especially associated with Germany and the Germanic-speaking Low Countries, but there are also examples from French-speaking northern France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Morlet 1968: 93), so that the name could have migrated to England from any one of several regions along the Channel and North Sea coasts. Frederic, abbot of St Albans in the earlier 1070s (Frederic 1), was regarded in the monastery’s traditions as a kinsman of King Cnut who came ‘from the Old Saxons and the Danes’ (Riley 1867–9: I, 41–51 esp. 41), but those traditions are confused and suspect; if he really was appointed abbot in 1064, as claimed but also doubtful, he may have been English, and called Frithuric (Freeman: IV, 822–4; Heads: 66 and note 1)

Apart from perhaps the abbot, the only known immigrant Frederic soon after 1066 was a Flemish noble (Frederic 6) who was given extensive lands in East Anglia and Cambridgeshire but killed during the uprising of Hereweard (Hereweard 1) in 1070, after which his lands passed via his sister Gundrada to her husband William de Warenne (Lewis 2004).

Bibliography

Baker and Holt 2004: Nigel Baker and Richard Holt, Urban Growth and the Medieval Church: Gloucester and Worcester (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004)

Darlington 1968: The Cartulary of Worcester Cathedral Priory (Register I), ed. R. R. Darlington, Pipe Roll Society, new series 38 (1968 for 1962–3)

DLV: The Durham Liber Vitae. London, British Library, MS Cotton Domitian A.VII: Edition and Digital Facsimile with Introduction, Codicological, Prosopographical and Linguistic Commentary, and Indexes, ed. D. W. Rollason and L. Rollason, 3 vols. (London: British Library, 2007)

Morlet 1968: Marie-Thérèse Morlet, Les Noms de personne sur le territoire de l’ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe siècle, I: Les noms issus du germanique continental et les creations gallo-germaniques (Paris: Editions de Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1968)

Freeman: Edward A. Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England, its Causes and its Results, 6 vols, revised edn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1875–9 [I and II in 3rd edn, 1877; III and IV in 2nd edn, 1875–6; V and VI, 1876–9]

Heads: The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales, 940–1216, ed. David Knowles, C. N. L. Brooke, and Vera C. M. London (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972)

Lewis 2004: C. P. Lewis, ‘Warenne, Gundrada de (d. 1085)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2007)

Riley 1867–9: ‘Gesta abbatum monasterii Sancti Albani, a Thoma Walsingham’, in Chronica monasterii S. Albani, ed. Henry Thomas Riley, 12 vols, Rolls Series 28 (1863–76), viz. 3 vols (1867–9)

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: Fredri, Frederic

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Fride–, Frederic

  Phillimore edition: Frederic (Suss.), Frederick (Kent)

  Alecto edition: Frederic

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
Kent 9,1 Eastwell Frederic Frederic 'of Kent' Edward, king Hugh de Montfort - 2.00 3.50 3.50 E Map
Sussex 12,43 East Chiltington Fredri Frederic 'of Sussex' Edward, king William de Warenne Robert 'the man of William de Warenne' 7.00 4.00 5.00 B Map
Sussex 13,4 Erringham Fredri Frederic 'of Sussex' Edward, king William de Briouze - 5.00 2.00 2.00 B Map
Totals