Meaning & History

"northman"

From an old Germanic byname meaning, referring to a Viking. The Normans were Vikings who settled on the coast of France, in the region that became known as Normandy. In England the nameorwas used before the Norman Conquest, first as a nickname for Scandinavian settlers and later as a given name. After the Conquest it became more common, but died out around the 14th century. It was revived in the 19th century, perhaps in part due to a character by this name in C. M. Yonge's 1856 novel