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Wifari

Discussion of the name

The name normalized here as Wifari represents ON Víðfari, originally a byname meaning something on the lines of ‘he who travels far and wide’. Outside DB, it occurs in the East Riding place-name Weaverthorpe (Wifretorp in DB), in the name of a moneyer at Ipswich under Harold I (1036–40) (ǷIDFARA and ǷIDFARE), and as a personal name in late twelfth-century Lincolnshire (Widefare, Widfar, and Widfare) and in the Durham Liber Vitae (Wiuer) (von Feilitzen 1937: 406; Björkman 1910: 175; Fellows Jensen 1968: 333). The different spellings alternate between ones which preserve the –ð– of the original Scandinavian name (always as a –d–), and ones which have lost it. The first group are localized in Lincolnshire and Suffolk, the second to the north and west. Although the onomastic authorities regard the loss of –ð– before a second consonant as an Anglo-Norman feature, it may also be that the name was diverging into two regional forms.

The three DB spellings all lack the medial –ð– and there seems no justification for inserting it into the normalized form adopted here. Phillimore renders this name Wivar; Alecto prefers Vithfari.

Bibliography

Björkman 1910: Erik Björkman, Nordische Personennamen in England in alt- und frühmittel-englischer Zeit, Studien zur englischen Philologie 37 (Halle an der Saale, 1910; reprinted Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1973)

von Feilitzen 1937: Olof von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book, Nomina Germanica 3 (Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells, 1937)

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

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Wiuar, Wifare, Wiuara

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Víðfari

  Phillimore edition: Wivar

  Alecto edition: Vithfari

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 Shropshire	Phil. ref. 4,17,3	Vill Ryton	DB Spelling Wiuar	Holder 1066 Wifari 'of Bobbington'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Roger, earl	1086 Subtenant Osbern fitzRichard	Fiscal Value 2.50	1066 Value 0.75	1086 Value 0.50	Confidence B	Map
Shire Staffordshire	Phil. ref. 11,43	Vill Bobbington	DB Spelling Wifare	Holder 1066 Wifari 'of Bobbington'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Robert of Stafford	1086 Subtenant Helgot de Fourches	Fiscal Value 5.00	1066 Value 2.00	1086 Value 2.00	Confidence B	Map
Shire Staffordshire	Phil. ref. 12,26	Vill Rushall	DB Spelling Wiuara	Holder 1066 Wifari 'of Bobbington'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William fitzAnsculf	1086 Subtenant Thorkil of Warwick	Fiscal Value 1.00	1066 Value 0.50	1086 Value 0.50	Confidence B	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

People of this name

• Wifari 2 - Wifari ‘of Bobbington’ (Staffs.), fl. 1066