The masculine name Bædling has been taken to be a nickname formed from OE bædling, the latter meaning ‘an effeminate man, a homosexual’ (von Feilitzen 1937: 193). The related nouns bædling and bæddel (‘hermaphrodite’) in fact occur only in learned contexts (glossaries and a penitential) (OED: bad, adj., n.2, adv.; badling, n.1) and look rather like words coined for the occasion, or at least a specialized application of words with other meanings in ordinary usage. Derogatory nicknames were common in Anglo-Saxon England, but the insult of effeminacy perhaps stretches credibility as a personal name used by a man of high social standing.
Bædling and bæddel are potentially both derived from an unattested OE badde, though the early history of Middle English badde, Modern English bad is a minefield of speculation (MED: badde, adj.; Coates 1988). It is perhaps worth noting that the northern English dialect word badling meant ‘a worthless person, a good-for-nothing’ (OED: badling, n.1), arguably more plausible as a nickname and personal name, and certainly in line with the earliest appearances of badde in bynames after 1200 (MED: badde, adj.).
In the present state of research, the meaning of the OE name Bædling cannot be resolved with complete satisfaction, but it clearly existed, if with only a single known usage, the TRE landowner Bædling 2.
Coates 1988: Richard Coates, ‘Middle English badde and related puzzles’, NOWELLE: North Western European Language Evolution, 11 (Feb. 1988), 91–104
MED: On-line Middle English Dictionary
von Feilitzen 1937: Olof von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book, Nomina Germanica 3 (Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells, 1937)
Spellings in Domesday Book: Bedling, Bellinc
Forms in modern scholarship:
von Feilitzen head forms: Bædling
Phillimore edition: Belling
Alecto edition: Bædling
Shire | Phil. ref. | Vill | Holder 1066 DB Spelling | Holder 1066 | Lord 1066 | Tenant-in-Chief 1086 | 1086 subtenant | Fiscal value | 1066 value | 1086 value | Holder 1066 ID conf. | Show on map |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sussex | 13,6 | Truleigh | Bedling | Bædling 'of Truleigh' | Godwine, earl | William de Briouze | William 'the man of William de Briouze' | 3.50 | 3.50 | 3.06 | A | Map |
Sussex | 12,28 | Perching | Bellinc | Bædling 'of Truleigh' | Godwine, earl | William de Warenne | Tezelin 'of Fulking' | 2.00 | 0.95 | 0.95 | A | Map |
Sussex | 13,6 | Truleigh | Bedling | Bædling 'of Truleigh' | Godwine, earl | William de Briouze | William 'the man of William de Briouze' | 0.50 | 0.50 | 0.44 | A | Map |
Total | 6.00 | 4.95 | 4.45 |
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