Place Names

We have already mentioned 3 place names on Wirral with Norwegian Viking origins.  They were Tranmere (from Trani-melr - crane sandbank), Meols (just sandbank!) and also West Kirby.
Watch this video about the only team in the English football league with a Norwegian Viking name.  

West Kirby is interesting because Kirby comes from kirkja-byr which is  old Norse for "settlement (byr or by) with the church (kirkja)".  
It was given this name by the Norsemen because of the church they founded called St. Bridget's, named after the patron saint of Ireland. Some of the Vikings were Christian by the time they arrived in Wirral, having been converted in Ireland (some say this was a remarkable achievement by the Irish!).

But why the "West" (or in Old Norse vestri)? The reason is the Vikings, upon their arrival, discovered an older Saxon church - now called St. Hilary's - in what is now Wallasey Village and they called that place Kirkby (settlement of the church).  So the Norsemen had a West Kirby and a Kirby or Kirkby.  Absolutely perfect sense!

In fact there are hundreds of place names in Wirral which have Norwegian origins and even a few with Irish origin like Liscard (meaning a hall on a rock) and Noctorum (meaning a hill that's dry).

The Frank in Frankby represents a Frenchman so it was the "Frenchman's by".

Greasby means "settlement at the copse" and Pensby means "settlement at a hill called Peen" and further down the Wirral is Whitby "the white manor or village" and at the bottom of the peninsula Helsby ( (hjalli-byr village at the ledge)

Other "by's" which no longer exist include Haby in Barnston parish, Eskby or Hesby in Bidston parish, Warmby which used to be on the coast down what is now Broad Lane Extension in Heswall, Kiln Walby in Upton and Stromby in the Thurstaston parish.

Haby means "high settlement"

Eskby and Hesby means "settlement by the ash trees".

Kiln Walby probably means the Gildsmans settlement near a well. Warmby means "warm settlement".

Stromby means "settlement by a stream".

Perhaps the most interesting though is Syllaby, the by or settlement named after the Norse lady Sylla

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