Are there place-names in England that show that vikings were there?
There are thousands of place-names in the north of England which are derived from the Old Norse language and ultimately as a result of viking settlement. Bilsthorpe, for example, in Nottinghamshire, first recorded in 1086, combines the ON personal name Bild with thorp, a common term for a new settlement or farm. Other examples of Scandinavian place-names are those which include ON by, ‘village’ or ‘farmstead’, such as Grimsby ‘Grim’s village’ or Kirkby, ‘the village with the church’. Another example is ON þveit, or ‘thwaite’, which refers to a ‘clearing, meadow or settlement’; as is found in names like Legburthwaite, Thornythwaite and Seathwaite.
