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Stengrim

Discussion of the name

Stengrim is a masculine Scandinavian name, normalized as ON Steingrímr and formed from the elements corresponding to OIcel stein (‘stone’) and OIcel grímr (‘mask’). It does not seem to be evidenced in Denmark but was one of the commonest names in medieval Iceland and frequent in Norway (Fellows Jensen 1968: 264). In England, although both elements were widely used to form names (Fellows Jensen 1968: 346, 349), Stengrim itself was extremely uncommon. The DB forms are ambivalent whether the name had been fully Anglicized, since the spelling in Stai– (for Stain–) suggests that the original Scandinavian vowel was retained, whereas Stan– shows substitution of the OE word for ‘stone’, stān, as the first element.

Other than the solitary Stengrim in DB there is no one of the name currently in PASE. A couple of dozen examples have been gathered from twelfth- and thirteenth-century Norfolk, but less than a handful from other counties (Insley 1994: 341–4), and the only Stengrim commemorated at post-Conquest Durham was a late twelfth-century archdeacon of Norfolk (DLV: II, 234; III, 117). The prevalence of the name in just one county seems likely in principle to have been due to its early use by one or more influential Norfolk families.

Bibliography

Fellows Jensen 1968: Gillian Fellows Jensen, Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire (Copenhagen: I Kommission hos Akademisk Forlag, 1968)

Insley 1994: John Insley, Scandinavian Personal Names in Norfolk: A Survey based on Medieval Records and Place-Names, Acta Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi 62 (Uppsala, 1994)

A.VII: Edition and Digital Facsimile with Introduction, Codicological, Prosopographical and Linguistic Commentary, and Indexes, ed. D. W. Rollason and L. Rollason, 3 vols. (London: British Library, 2007)

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: Staigrim, Stangrim

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Steingrímr

  Phillimore edition: Steingrimr

  Alecto edition: Steingrimr

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 Lincolnshire	Phil. ref. 12,3	Vill Willingham	DB Spelling Staigrim	Holder 1066 Stengrim 'of Willingham'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Alan, count	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 1.50	1066 Value 1.29	1086 Value 0.64	Confidence A	Map
Shire Lincolnshire	Phil. ref. 28,14	Vill Waddingham	DB Spelling Stangrim	Holder 1066 Stengrim 'of Willingham'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Jocelin fitzLambert	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 0.38	1066 Value 1.00	1086 Value 1.00	Confidence A	Map
Shire Lincolnshire	Phil. ref. CW10	Vill Willingham	DB Spelling Stangrim	Holder 1066 Stengrim 'of Willingham'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 -	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 2.25	1066 Value 0.00	1086 Value 0.00	Confidence A	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

People of this name

• Stengrim 2 - Stengrim ‘of Willingham’ (Lincs.), fl. 1066