Merefin

Male
CPL
4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Merefin is a masculine name of uncertain origin. The idea that it represents an unrecorded ON name Møra-Finnr (‘Finnr from Møra’, a district in Norway) (Björkman 1910: 191; von Feilitzen 1937) is far-fetched. More likely it was newly coined in the late Anglo-Saxon period by combining the OE first element mere ‘the sea’ with the Scandinavian name Finn. A curiosity of the name is that the seventh-century Mercian prince who makes a brief appearance in the legendary material associated with his sisters St Milburh, St Milgith, and St Mildrith is called Merewine (Mereuinus) in the traditions preserved at Ely abbey but Merefin (Merefin) elsewhere, including Goscelin of Saint-Bertin’s Life of Mildrith, written c. 1100 (Blake 1962: p. 35 (I.17); Fairweather 2005: 46; Rollason 1982: 93, 115). That in itself underlines the currency of Merefin as a real name in the late eleventh century.

There are no instances of the name currently recorded in PASE apart from the one in DB. Merefin as the patronym of an addressee in a writ of Edward the Confessor is relevant to the identification of Merefin 2 and discussed there.

Bibliography

Björkman 1910: Erik Björkman, Nordische Personennamen in England in alt- und frühmittel-englischer Zeit, Studien zur englischen Philologie 37 (Halle an der Saale, 1910; reprinted Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1973)

Blake 1962: Liber Eliensis, ed. E. O. Blake, Camden 3rd series 92 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1962)

Fairweather 2005: Liber Elienesis: A History of the Isle of Ely from the Seventh Century to the Twelfth, compiled by a monk of Ely in the twelfth century, trans. Janet Fairweather (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005)

Rollason 1982: D. W. Rollason, The Mildrith Legend: A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1982)

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: Merefin

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Merefin

  Phillimore edition: Merefin

  Alecto edition: Merefin

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
Northamptonshire 18,39 Foxley Merefin Merefin 'of Foxley' - Robert, count of Mortain Ralph 'the man of Robert, count of Mortain (in the East Midlands)' 0.40 0.25 0.25 A Map
Totals