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Gunware

Discussion of the name

Von Feilitzen (1937: 278) showed that the DB spellings Gunneuare and Guneuuare derived from the identifiably ON female name Gunnvor. The name included the elements Gunn–, related to the OIcel word gunnr ‘battle’, and vor, related to a word meaning ‘protector’. Gunnvor was the name of a daughter of one of the original settlers of Iceland and was much used in Norway (Fellows Jensen 1968: 118–19).

The name was already Anglicized before 1066 as Gunware, as recorded in an inscription from Aldborough in the Vale of York, and the spelling Gunware was used regularly in the twelfth century in both Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (Fellows Jensen 1968: 118–19). 

Phillimore renders the name Gunnvor, Alecto has the very unsatisfactory form Gunwor. Von Feilitzen also listed under Gunnvor a Cheshire spelling Gunnor which really belongs to the name Gunnar.

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)

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Gunneuare

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Gunnvor

  Phillimore edition: Gunnvor

  Alecto edition: Gunwor

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 Yorkshire	Phil. ref. 5E53	Vill Brigham	DB Spelling Guneuuare	Holder 1066 Gunware 'of Rudston'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Robert, count of Mortain	1086 Subtenant Richard de Sourdeval	Fiscal Value 3.50	1066 Value 0.00	1086 Value 0.00	Confidence -	Map
Shire Yorkshire	Phil. ref. 5E54	Vill Rudston	DB Spelling Guneuuare	Holder 1066 Gunware 'of Rudston'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Robert, count of Mortain	1086 Subtenant Richard de Sourdeval	Fiscal Value 8.00	1066 Value 0.00	1086 Value 0.00	Confidence -	Map
Shire Yorkshire	Phil. ref. 5N31	Vill Cloughton	DB Spelling Gunneuare	Holder 1066 Gunware 'of Rudston'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Robert, count of Mortain	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 0.25	1066 Value 0.00	1086 Value 0.00	Confidence -	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

People of this name

• Gunware 1 - Gunware 'of Brigham', fl. 1066
• Gunware 2 - Gunware ‘of Rudston’ (Yorkshire, East Riding), fl. 1066
• Gunware 3 - Gunware 'of Cloughton', fl. 1066