The "Dictionary of County Durham Place Names", by Victor Watts, gives a very comprehensive coverage of the derivation of the name 'Wear' and concludes that it seems there were two different ancient names Uisur(i)a, 'to flow', and Uedra 'bending one', a not infrequent phenomenon in the case of large rivers. Stan Mapstone -----Original Message----- From: NEGenealogy@aol.com To: ENG-DURHAM@rootsweb.com Sent: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:04 Subject: [ENG-DURHAM] Meaning of "Wear" In a message dated 01/07/2009 08:08:35 GMT Daylight Time, watsonb@iinet.com.au writes: So what did "wear" stand for .Was it old Danish for something? It is simply the name of the River. Pre- (Norman) conquest refrences are usually to "Weremutha" (Wearmouth) and a Roman-period map of Britain (by Ptolomy?) calls the river the "Vedra flumen", which is near-enough "River Wear". Like most local natural geographical features, its name is probably Celtic, reflecting that given to it by the first local inhabitants. Contrary to some strands of public opinion, few Danes ever settled locally. The influence of the Kingdom of York seems to have stopped at the Tees, and there are only a tiny few examples of Danish "-by" place-names north of that river (Raby is the best-known and Follingsby the nearest to the Sunderland area. Even Follingsby is a long way from Sunderland and it is probably significant that it is on the upper reaches (not now navigable) of the River Don, which joins the River Tyne at Jarrow Slake, where a Viking fleet is said to have once over-wintered. Geoff Nicholson Geoff Nicholson ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-DURHAM-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ________________________________________________________________________ AOL Email goes Mobile! You can now read your AOL Emails whilst on the move. Sign up for a free AOL Email account with unlimited storage today.