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Costelin

Discussion of the name

The Domesday name Costelin has hitherto been described as ‘a Romanic in-derivative’ of the Continental Germanic name Costila (von Feilitzen 1937: 219). The explanation fails to take account of the most important fact about the Costelin of DB, that he held land in the Welsh territory of Archenfield. A Continental Germanic name is out of the question, let alone one for which there is no independent evidence.

The name must in fact represent an Old Welsh masculine name. Possibilities are firstly that the Welsh version of the Roman name Constantinus, borrowed in the (normalized) form Custennin and widely used in the early period but out of favour by the tenth century; and secondly that the name normalized as Cuhelyn, which evidently came into use in the tenth century and remained quite frequent throughout the period to 1215 (Bartrum 1974: V, pp. 65, 96). One Cuhelyn was father of a pivotal figure in the Welsh genealogies, Elstan Glodrydd, ancestor of the rulers of Buellt and Rhwng Gwy a Hafren in south-central Wales (Bartrum 1966: 39, 48, 104, 137; Lloyd 1911: II, 406 and note 31).

Bibliography

Bartrum 1966: Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts, ed. P. C. Bartrum (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1966)

Bartrum 1974: Welsh Genealogies, A.D. 300–1400, comp. Peter Clement Bartrum, 8 vols (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1974)

Lloyd 1911: John Edward Lloyd, A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1911)

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Costelin

Forms in modern scholarship:

von Feilitzen head forms: Costelin

Phillimore edition: Costelin

Alecto edition: Costelin

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 Herefordshire	Phil. ref. 1,58	Vill Birch	DB Spelling Costelin	Holder 1066 Costelin 'of Birch'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William, king	1086 Subtenant Roger de Lacy	Fiscal Value 0.00	1066 Value 0.75	1086 Value 0.75	Confidence A	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

People of this name

• Costelin 2 - Costelin ‘of Birch’ in Archenfield (Herefs.), fl. 1066