Morfari has been explained as perhaps an ON name (though not one recorded in Scandinavia), originating as a byname meaning ‘traveller to Iceland’ and comparable with the Icelanders’ nickname for themselves, morlandi, which includes the word morr ‘suet’. In the Anglicized form Morfar it is recorded as a surname in thirteenth-century Yorkshire (von Feilitzen 1938: 331; Fellows Jensen 1968: 200). It occurs in DB both as Morfare, preserving something of the Norse pronunciation, and in the more Anglicized form Morfar. The fact that it was the name of more than one person suggests that it was being used as a real personal name, and not as a nickname for someone who had literally travelled to Iceland.
Alecto renders the name Morfari; Phillimore uses Morfari in Yorkshire but Morfar in Cheshire.
Fellows Jensen 1968: Gillian Fellows Jensen, Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire (Copenhagen: I Kommission hos Akademisk Forlag, 1968)
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: Morfare, Morfare
Forms in modern scholarship:
von Feilitzen head forms: Morfari
Phillimore edition: Morfari (Yorks.), Morfar (Cheshire)
Alecto edition: Morfari
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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cheshire | 26,1 | Somerford Booths | Morfar | Morfari 'of Somerford Booths' | - | Hugh, earl | Tezelin Somerford Booths' | 0.08 | 0.10 | 0.07 | - | Map |
Yorkshire | 9W121 | Reestones etc. | Morfar | Morfari ‘of Halton’ | - | Ilbert de Lacy | Ligulf 'of Fairburn' | 3.00 | 0.50 | 0.25 | - | Map |
Yorkshire | 9W18 | Snitertun | Morfare | Morfari ‘of Halton’ | - | Ilbert de Lacy | - | 2.00 | 0.75 | 0.00 | - | Map |
Yorkshire | 9W10 | Halton | Morfare | Morfari ‘of Halton’ | - | Ilbert de Lacy | - | 6.00 | 1.00 | 0.10 | - | Map |
Yorkshire | 9W124 | Beeston | Morfare | Morfari ‘of Halton’ | - | Ilbert de Lacy | - | 3.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | - | Map |
Total | 14.08 | 3.35 | 0.42 |
Shire | Phil. ref. | Vill | Lord 1066 DB Spelling | Holder 1066 | Lord 1066 | Tenant-in-Chief 1086 | 1086 subtenant | Fiscal value | 1066 value | 1086 value | Lord 1066 ID conf. | Show on map |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yorkshire | 9W125 | Hunslet | - | Morfari | Ilbert de Lacy | - | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | - | Map | |
Total | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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