May Williamson: The Non-Celtic Place-Names of the Scottish Border ...

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Miscellaneous Norse Names.
TINWALD (Tnw): (88, 11 B):
Tynwald, 1335-6 CDS. ON ing-vllr, “field where the assembly meets”. The presence of
such a name indicates a large Norse population in the immediate vicinity, and the persistence
of Norse customs and speech for a considerable period. Cf Tingwall (PN Sh, 125), Dingwall,
Ross (PNS, 156), Tynwald (PN IoM, 416), Thingwall (PN La, 112), Thingwall, Ch (DEPN,
444).
BROATS (KF): (89, 5 F):
Brotis, 1543 RPS; Brottis, 1619 Reg Sas Dmf; Broits, 1662 RMS. ME brotes, “clearings”,
from ON bróti, “heap of trees felled in a wood”: cf Broates (PN YNR, 86).
HODDOM (Cum): (89, 2 E):
This is a difficult problem, and is as likely to be Celtic as Norse. I include it here as a Norse
solution seems to be the most plausible.
Holdelm, 12 th century Vita Kentig; Hodelm(e), c 1124 (12 th ) Glas; 1189, 1199 CDS; 1194-
1214 HC; -elmia, 1179 CDS; c 1190 HMC (Drml); -olm(e), 1194-1212 CDS; 1296 ib; -olmia,
1194-1212 ib; -almia, ib; /321/ -holm(e), 1215-41 HC; c 1294 LSMM; 1296 CDS; 1317
RMS; 1544 Ham Pap; Odoum, 1210 CDS. The ending may be ON hjálmr, “helmet”, or
perhaps, in the transferred sense, “hay-rick”. The first element may possibly be an ON poetic
term hodd, usually meaning “hoard, treasure”, but used on one recorded occasion to denote
“holy place, temple, sanctuary” (C-V, s.v., 2). Hjálmr might refer to the shape of the hill
behind Hoddom Castle, and the meaning of the compound hodd-hjálmr could be “temple
beside the helmet-shaped hill”.
/322/ XCVI
“INVERSION COMPOUNDS”
Ekwall devotes the greater part of his work “Scandinavians and Celts in North-West England”
to the discussion of this type of compound. There are only a handful of examples in our area,
but they are worth noting.
These names are modelled on the common Celtic type, both Gaelic and British, which abound
in the Border Counties, in which the second element determines the first, eg Glendinning,
Carruthers, Kilblain, Dumbretton. In the Inversion Compounds, however, the first element is
usually Norse, and the second may be Norse also. The terminal in most often a personal name
denoting an early owner of the site, or a saint to whom a church is dedicated. It is supposed
that these names were formed by Norse settlers on the analogy of the Celtic names they found
already in existence. At first Celtic-Norse hybrids appeared but later all-Norse compounds
were formed and so we have examples of names in NW England such as Becsnari (Sc & C,
18), Butterilket (ib, 21), and Chelduspat (ib, 21).
The Scottish Inversion Compounds are to be found /323/ almost solely in Dumfries and
Galloway. The commonest type is that composed of kirk- followed by the name of the saint to
whom the church was dedicated. In such names, Kirk- is plainly ON kirkja. In some of the
names this sometimes exchanges with Kil-, which shows that these compounds were equally
acceptable to Norse and Gaelic speakers.