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Dedol

Discussion of the name

The origin of the name cannot be satisfactorily resolved from the Domesday evidence. The regular form there is Dedol (as adopted by both Phillimore and Alecto, and as discussed by von Feilitzen), with the form Dedou representing a scribal error in a name which was unusual and unfamiliar. The scribe may have misread a final –l or more plausibly two letters with vertical strokes (perhaps –lf); or perhaps missed off the final letter –lf from what should have been Dedoulf (compare Toulf in Staffs. and Tou in Dors., variants of a single name: von Feilitzen 1937: 389).

Von Feilitzen suggested a possible origin in the ON name Þióðólfr, but Scandinavian names beginning with the letter Þ– (Th–) are almost without exception spelled with an initial T– in Domesday Book (von Feilitzen 1937: 389–97). It nonetheless remains the most likely origin. One possible reconstruction of the name as used in England in the eleventh century would be Thedulf: it occurs in the place-name Thealby (Lincs.), where the DB spellings are Tedulfbi and Tedolbi (Lincs. 1:64; 13:15; 30:4; 32:18; CW:19; Cameron 1998: 124; Mills 2004: 607). The step from Thedol to DB’s Dedol involves the Old English capital letter thorn (Þ) turning into a D.

The DB spelling Dedol is here preferred over the hypothetical Thedulf for this name. In whatever spelling, it is not otherwise recorded in PASE.

Bibliography

Cameron 1998: Kenneth Cameron, A Dictionary of Lincolnshire Place-Names (Nottingham: English Place-Name Society, 1998)

Mills 2004: The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, based on the collections of the English Place-Name Society, ed. Victor Watts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Dedol, Dedou

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Dedol, but also suggesting ON Þióðólfr

  Phillimore edition: Dedol

  Alecto edition: Dedol

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. 1,19	Vill Little Budworth	DB Spelling Dedol	Holder 1066 Dedol ‘of Bunbury’	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Hugh, earl	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 0.50	1066 Value 0.00	1086 Value 0.00	Confidence -	Map
Shire Cheshire	Phil. ref. 2,25	Vill Bunbury	DB Spelling Dedol	Holder 1066 Dedol ‘of Bunbury’	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Hugh, earl	1086 Subtenant Robert fitzHugh	Fiscal Value 1.00	1066 Value 0.20	1086 Value 0.65	Confidence -	Map
Shire Cheshire	Phil. ref. 2,26	Vill Tiverton	DB Spelling Dedol	Holder 1066 Dedol ‘of Bunbury’	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Hugh, earl	1086 Subtenant Robert fitzHugh	Fiscal Value 1.00	1066 Value 0.25	1086 Value 0.63	Confidence -	Map
Shire Cheshire	Phil. ref. 5,4	Vill Cogshall	DB Spelling Dedou	Holder 1066 Dedol ‘of Bunbury’	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Hugh, earl	1086 Subtenant Richard de Vernon	Fiscal Value 0.25	1066 Value 0.05	1086 Value 0.13	Confidence -	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

People of this name

• Dedol 2 - Dedol ‘of Bunbury’ (Ches.), fl. 1066