![]() The use of this term satisfies and incorporates both traditional interpretations of the word as meaning ‘woodland’ and later ‘a clearing within woodland’. ![]() It is conjectured that the term refers to a form of wood pasture. Historical interpretations of the meaning of leah are reviewed and the etymology examined. Analysis of the charter evidence is used to disclose common characteristics relating to their early use and formation as well as the social and physical landscape in which they were created. The corpus of charters constitutes a unique subset of leah names that represent the earliest recorded instances of the element. They are a common feature within Anglo-Saxon charter bounds of the 8th to 11th centuries. ‘Ley’ or ‘leigh’ names are among the most widespread and intensively studied of English place-names. What this essay primarily aims to do is to document the changes after 1066 by means of a corpus of name records collected in my Continental Origins of English Landholders (1066-1166) Database, supplemented by analysis of some contrasting texts, both contemporary and later. It did so at a time when naming systems elsewhere in Europe were moving towards a two-name system. The Norman Conquest of 1066, by an army predominantly of Normans, but also including Bretons and Picards, introduced a completely new set of personal names which eventually almost completely replaced native English names. The invasion of Danish Vikings in the eighth century affected place-names in the Midlands and the east in the area known as the Danelaw, and introduced Scan-dinavian names into the English personal name pool (reinforced by the Danish conquest of 1016). Detailed studies of place-names, still in progress, have yielded some insights into the process of the early Germanic invasions, for example, indicating some of the preoccupations of the settlers with topographical features such as water, and even preserve some of their personal names for example, Brightwell «bright spring», and Mackney, «Macca's island» in Berkshire 1. English place-names preserve the evidence of this language change: very few British elements survive (exceptions include the names of the River Thames and the port of Dover). The Anglo-Saxon immigrants of the fifth and sixth century so well established themselves that their language completely replaced the British language previously spoken, confining it to the western extremities of Wales, Cornwall in southwest England and Galloway in southwest Scotland. Secondly, an unusually rich survival of documentation from the late eleventh-century onward allows us to trace this process in some detail. First, and most relevant to the themes of this book, it was the subject of three waves of migration in the medieval period which affected both language and naming. England offers one of the richest sources of information for study of trends in names and naming.
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