Non-Celtic place-names of the Scottish Border counties

Abstract

The following work is intended as a survey of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian place-name. material in the Border Counties. I have tried to demonstrate ; chat types of names occur, where they are situated, and roughly to what period they belong. Thus it has been more convenient to group the names under their endings than to arrange them by parishes in the manner of the English Place-Name Society's volumes.

It is almost impossible to date Scottish places with any certainty since spellings for the majority are not found before the 13th Century, but generally they may be classified under three headings (a) Old English; (b) Middle English (c) Scandinavian, and Middle English of Scandinavian origin. Between the first two classes there must be a good deal of overlapping. It is known that names in -ing, -ingahäm, -ingtün and -ham probably ceased to be formed after the OE period, but many of the other habitational endings which in England belong to this time must have continued to be formed at a much later date in the North. Similarly many of the names classified as Middle English may belong to the OE period.