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Leofgyth

Gender: Female

Author: DWP

Editorial Status: 4 of 5

Discussion of the name

The Old English feminine name Leofgyth comprises the elements lēof ‘dear, beloved’ and gyð ‘combat, battle, war’. Although both elements were common in name formation the name Leofgyth itself was not common. The only person of the name recorded from before 1066 was Leofgyth 1, the wife of a man in the Winchester area in the late tenth or early eleventh century.

It is virtually impossible to distinguish between the DB forms for this name and those for the masculine name Leofgeat unless the text or context provides a further clue as to gender (von Feilitzen 1937: 311-12). There is also the potential for confusion between the feminine second elements gyð and gifu and hence between the feminine names Leofgyth and Leofgifu (Dodgson 1985: 42-3; Insley et al. 2007: 135-6); an example of this can be found in the Domesday entries which render Leofgifu Luith and Leveve. It is therefore possible that some instances discussed elsewhere under the names Leofgeat or Leofgifu should in fact be referred to Leofgyth.

Bibliography

Dodgson 1985: J. McN. Dodgson, ‘Some Domesday personal-names, mainly post-Conquest’, Nomina 9 (1985), 41-51

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

Insley et al. 2007: J. Insley and D. Rollason with P. McClure, ‘A.3 English dithematic names’, in ed. D. and L. Rollason, The Durham Liber Vitae: Volume II (London, 2007)

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Leuid, Leuiede, Leviet

Forms in modern scholarship:

von Feilitzen head forms: Lēofgyð

Phillimore edition: Leofith (+ Leofgeat, corrected to Leofgyth in Index)

Alecto edition: Leofgyth

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 Essex	Phil. ref. 30,43	Vill White Roding	DB Spelling Leuid	Holder 1066 Leofgyth 'of Roding'	Lord 1066 Esgar the staller	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Geoffrey de Mandeville	1086 Subtenant Geoffrey Martel	Fiscal Value 0.50	1066 Value 0.50	1086 Value 0.60	Confidence B	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Tenant-in-Chief 1086 demesne estates (no subtenants)

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 Wiltshire	Phil. ref. 67,86	Vill Knook	DB Spelling Leviet	Holder 1066 unnamed husband of Leofgyth	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Leofgyth, king's thegn	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 3.50	1066 Value 3.00	1086 Value 3.00	Confidence B	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Subtenant in 1086

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 Essex	Phil. ref. B3a	Vill Colchester	DB Spelling Liuidi	Holder 1066 -	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William, king	1086 Subtenant Leofgyth, burgess of Colchester	Fiscal Value 0.00	1066 Value 0.00	1086 Value 0.00	Confidence -	Map
Shire Warwickshire	Phil. ref. B2	Vill Warwick	DB Spelling Luith	Holder 1066 -	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William, king	1086 Subtenant Leofgyth the nun	Fiscal Value 0.00	1066 Value 0.00	1086 Value 0.00	Confidence -	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value