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Lanc

Discussion of the name

The name interpreted here as Lanc is an Old English masculine name, originally a byname from the OE adjective hlanc ‘lank, lean, gaunt’. It is not otherwise recorded from pre-Conquest England but occurs as the surname Lank or Lanke in the later medieval period.

The interpretation of the name is not straightforward. The various forms of it in GDB, all of which probably refer to the same man (Lanc 2), comprise Lanch (three times), Lanc (three times), Lang (once) and Lange (once); the name also occurs as Lanc in the Winton Domesday (Barlow 1976: 67). The majority of forms therefore point to Lanc(h) rather than Lang(e). Von Feilitzen (1937: 308; 1976: 164) and Tengvik (1938: 320) regarded all these forms as being most likely to represent a name Lang derived from the OE adjective lang ‘long, tall’, although von Feilitzen regarded Lange as representing Langa, a weak form of the name. Both men recognized that the forms could instead derive from OE hlanc but they apparently preferred a derivation from OE lang because they regarded the unvoicing of /ng/ %% /nk/ as easier to explain philologically than the reverse (cf. Campbell 1968: 21, 174; Hogg 1992: 256, 259-60).

Philological precision is rarely possible or conclusive when working with the names recorded in DB, however, and a comparative approach is often preferable. Although the main GDB scribe often uses ‹inc› to represent /ing/ in final position there is no evidence (other than the present name) that he used ‹nch› to represent final /ng/. By contrast, he regularly uses ‹nch› or ‹nc› to represent /nk/ (generally in a medial position and in Anglo-Scandinavian names). The evidence is not conclusive and it should also be noted the one of the forms for the ambiguous name Langfer is spelt with medial ‹nc›. Nevertheless, with regard to the present name both the frequency of spellings in Lanc(h) and the absence of ‹nch› to represent /ng/ mean that the balance of probability favours the interpretation as Lanc rather than Lang and so that has been adopted here.

It possible that two GDB instances of the spelling Lant could also represent the name Lanc if there was scribal confusion of ‹c› and ‹t›. However, these Lant forms are here regarded as more likely to represent the Old English name Land.

Bibliography

Barlow 1976: ed. F. Barlow, ‘The Winton Domesday’, in ed. M. Biddle, Winchester in the Early Middle Ages: An Edition and Discussion of the Winton Domesday, Winchester Studies 1 (Oxford, 1976), 1-141

Campbell 1968: A. Campbell, Old English Grammar (Oxford, 1959; rvsd 1968)

Hogg 1992: R. M. Hogg, A Grammar of Old English. Volume 1: Phonology (Oxford, 1992)

Tengvik 1938: G. Tengvik, Old English Bynames, Nomina Germanica 4 (Uppsala, 1938)

von Feilitzen 1937: O. von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book, Nomina Germanica 3 (Uppsala, 1937)

von Feilitzen 1976: O. von Feilitzen, ‘The personal names and bynames of the Winton Domesday’, in ed. M. Biddle, Winchester in the Early Middle Ages: An Edition and Discussion of the Winton Domesday, Winchester Studies 1 (Oxford, 1976), 145-229

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Lanc, Lanch, Lang, Lange

Spelling in Winton Domesday: Lanc

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: *Lang, Langa

  Phillimore edition: Lang, Lank

  Alecto edition: Lang, Langa

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 Berkshire	Phil. ref. 1,47	Vill Winterbourne	DB Spelling Lanc	Holder 1066 Lanc the dealer	Lord 1066 Eadgyth, queen	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William, king	1086 Subtenant Theodric the goldsmith	Fiscal Value 5.00	1066 Value 6.00	1086 Value 4.00	Confidence C	Map
Shire Berkshire	Phil. ref. 63,2	Vill Hampstead Norreys	DB Spelling Lanc	Holder 1066 Lanc the dealer	Lord 1066 Edward, king	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Theodric the goldsmith	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 17.00	1066 Value 12.00	1086 Value 10.00	Confidence B	Map
Shire Hampshire	Phil. ref. 1,46	Vill Faccombe	DB Spelling Lang	Holder 1066 Lanc the dealer	Lord 1066 Edward, king	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William, king	1086 Subtenant Roger de Poitou	Fiscal Value 13.00	1066 Value 13.00	1086 Value 16.00	Confidence B	Map
Shire Hampshire	Phil. ref. 1,46	Vill Winchester	DB Spelling Lang	Holder 1066 Lanc the dealer	Lord 1066 Edward, king	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William, king	1086 Subtenant Roger de Poitou	Fiscal Value 0.00	1066 Value 0.00	1086 Value 0.00	Confidence B	Map
Shire Hampshire	Phil. ref. 1,6	Vill Chiltlee	DB Spelling Lanch	Holder 1066 Lanc the dealer	Lord 1066 Edward, king	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William, king	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 2.00	1066 Value 2.65	1086 Value 2.65	Confidence B	Map
Shire Surrey	Phil. ref. 21,1	Vill Whitford	DB Spelling Lanch	Holder 1066 Lanc the dealer	Lord 1066 Edward, king	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William fitzAnsculf	1086 Subtenant William the chamberlain	Fiscal Value 2.00	1066 Value 2.50	1086 Value 3.00	Confidence C	Map
Shire Wiltshire	Phil. ref. 67,100	Vill Blunsdon	DB Spelling Lanch	Holder 1066 Lanc the dealer	Lord 1066 Edward, king	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Edward of Salisbury	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 2.00	1066 Value 1.00	1086 Value 0.35	Confidence C	Map
Shire Wiltshire	Phil. ref. 67,44	Vill Stanton Fitzwarren	DB Spelling Lange	Holder 1066 Lanc the dealer	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Grimbald the goldsmith	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 10.00	1066 Value 12.00	1086 Value 12.00	Confidence C	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

People of this name

• Lanc 2 - Lanc Dealer, fl. 1066