Normandy - Normans - Northmen - Norse - Vikings? What's In A Name

Rollo the Ganger

Hrolf Ganger

Time for recreational tracing hypothetical roots. Don't you love it. Names. Here we follow up the William the Conqueror post at France Road Ways, Caen, Bayeux Tapestry, and William the Conqueror. Looking at William, as the Norman who invaded England successfully; and who he was. Note that we also find that the English on the other side of the channel were likely Norse as well - over time, Harold itself being a Norse name and the Norse having settled in northern and eastern England.

Rollo here was a Norman leader in 911 AD, the Normans being the Northmen who stayed in France after a period of raiding and marauding all thge way up the Seine, into Paris, into Burgundy, etc. The King of the Franks, (tribes going by a variety of names themselves) gave the pests the area of Normandy if they would just quit it. Rollo had to become Christian, and so he did, and Rollo is his Christian name. He had been Hrolf, far more interesting.

In time, this Norse-derived group was governed by one of their own, who became known as the Duke of Normandy - a people apart. Read about them and their most famous Duke, William the Conqueror, at The Normans, at ://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/MEDnormandy.htm/ Not nice as neighbors or conquerors, but those were the times? Or were the Normans fiercer than others.

Meanwhile, other Norse were settling in Northern England - where "Danelaw" and not Saxon law would prevail. There, even the word "thorpe" is Norse for "village." The Yorkshire dialect in early times was "pidgin Norse." See ://members.tripod.com/HistoricalNovelists/norman.htm / Harold or Harald, and Canute (Knut) are Norse.

Migrations of peoples - no boundaries. See also ://www.economicexpert.com/a/Normans.html

Our group seems to have ended in Ireland, where Red Scariff fathered many near St. Lazerian's in County Carlow, branches then all over east, west, down under. This string suggests the Norman connecton, perhaps not a direct Norse settlement. Now back to fixing dinner....
Hrolf Ganger, he is called at ://members.tripod.com/HistoricalNovelists/norman.htm

What's in a name: Try Otkell, son of Skarf, and that surname with its Norse derivations, and this site suggesting either

a) the name appearing in Ireland as part of Norse-Viking settlers; or

b) the name coming with the Normans-Norse to England, and from there, to Ireland through Strongbow. See

Are we Norman? See Finding New Roots, Surname.