Top of page Discussion Bibliography Forms Distribution Map Property List People of this Name Bottom of page

Guthlac

Discussion of the name

The spelling Gotlac undoubtedly represents the name Guthlac and as used in 1066 it is likely to be of Scandinavian rather than English origin, formed from the ON words guð ‘the gods’ and leikr ‘sport, battle’. The Scandinavian name seems not to have been widely adopted in England: it is very rare in the place-names of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, for example (Fellows Jensen 1968: 110, 344, 350).

The form Gotlac could in theory represent the OE name Guthlac, formed from the words gūð ‘combat, battle, war’ and lāc ‘play, battle’ (von Feilitzen 1937: 278, 307), and so a different name from Scandinavian Guthlac. English Guthlac was an old name, made famous by St Guthlac (d. 716), whose particular associations were with Leicestershire and the great Benedictine monastery at Crowland in the Lincolnshire Fens, but whose cult was known throughout England (PASE: Guthlac 2; Farmer 1992: 220–1; Jones 2007: 16, 36, 49, 108, 176). The name was also borne by a Worcestershire charter witness active in the 690s (PASE: Guthlac 1) and by an abbot who ruled Glastonbury 824–40 (De ant. Glast. pp. 110–11, 146–7).

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)

Scott 1981:The Early History of Glastonbury: An Edition, Translation and Study of William of Malmesbury’s De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie, ed. J. Scott (Woodbridge, 1981)

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Gotlac

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Guðleikr

  Phillimore edition: Guthlac

  Alecto edition: Guthlac

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 Cheshire	Phil. ref. 1,5	Vill Wimbolds Trafford	DB Spelling Gotlac	Holder 1066 Guthlac 5 'of Wimbolds Trafford'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Hugh, earl	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 0.50	1066 Value 0.25	1086 Value 0.05	Confidence -	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

People of this name

• Guthlac 5 - Guthlac ‘of Wimbolds Trafford’, fl. 1066