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ArchivesRe: Meaning of last name Thornburgh?
in reply to a message by Johnathan Raymond Pessetti
That's three unrelated words which just happen to start with the same letter. þ is called "thorn" in Gothic and English, and "þurs" (thurse/giant/long man) in Norse. Some people call it Thor, assuming (without evidence) þurs and þorn are later errors for þunr-. They are not the same word or even related words and the meanings are not interchangeable.
The form suggest old Swedish *Thornborgh (thorn-city), but if Swedish it is probably folk etymology from modern Swedish Tornborg (only a surname, not a place, so probably "thorn" not "tower" (Torn from Turn/Turm from Latin Turrim, accusative of Turris, tower)). This type of surname in Sweden is only modern. There is a simpler explanation though - there is a town in Gloucestershire named Thornbury, but this is simply the dative/genitive case of Thornburgh (i.e. when grammatical cases were still used you'd say "Thornburgh is a market town", but "there is a manor at Thornbury").
The form suggest old Swedish *Thornborgh (thorn-city), but if Swedish it is probably folk etymology from modern Swedish Tornborg (only a surname, not a place, so probably "thorn" not "tower" (Torn from Turn/Turm from Latin Turrim, accusative of Turris, tower)). This type of surname in Sweden is only modern. There is a simpler explanation though - there is a town in Gloucestershire named Thornbury, but this is simply the dative/genitive case of Thornburgh (i.e. when grammatical cases were still used you'd say "Thornburgh is a market town", but "there is a manor at Thornbury").
This message was edited 10/13/2020, 4:22 PM
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