Change, competition and confusion among settlement names in Bråbo härad

Written records of place-names are important not only because they help to establish the etymology of the names, but also because they make it possible to investigate how different names evolve and change during their lifetime. Often, names develop fairly regularly and according to well-known patterns, but sometimes other kinds of changes occur that cannot be explained by sound laws or other linguistic factors.

In this paper, I discuss the irregular changes that can be observed among the settlement names of Bråbo härad in Östergötland. The corpus studied comprises some 120 names, and for about one-fifth of these, changes are recorded that deviate from the expected development. In some of these cases the irregularity consists of a morphological variation, but more often the changes are the result of replacement of the entire name or part of it. Some of these processes of name replacement were rapid, but in other cases the written records show that competing names and name forms existed during the process, leaving us with a more or less confused picture of what actually happened.

Although the changes discussed in the paper are irregular, some patterns can be discerned. In the majority of cases, replacement of names took place during the 17th and 18th centuries. Geographically, most of the changes are to be found in the flat agricultural district in the southern part of Bråbo härad, and in adjacent woodland areas. The changes are mostly associated with settlements belonging to the upper classes, and often occurred when ordinary farms were turned into manors, when there was a change of ownership, or in connection with different kinds of reorganisation of the settlement. It is also shown that both the topographical and the onomastic landscape influence how place-names evolve, not least as far as the occurrence of alternative, competing names is concerned.