Bäckaslöv, Teckomatorp och Tulunda. Tre sydsvenska ortnamnsstudier

Tre sydsvenska ortnamnsstudier

Abstract

The now lost village Bäckaslöv (beckisslöff 1540) in Växjö parish, Kinnevald hundred, in Småland Province, was donated in 1652 by Queen Kristina to the city of Växjö and was later totally abandoned. There is no doubt that Bäckaslöv is an old, prehistoric -löv name, Old Swedish Bækkisløf. The Scanian place-name Eslöv has been interpreted as Old Danish *Æsislef with the genitive singular of an inhabitant designation *æsir ‘someone who lives at or by a ridge’ as its first element. Bäckaslöv should correspondingly be explained as being from the genitive singular of *bækkir ‘someone who lives by a brook’.

The Scanian village name Teckomatorp (Tickemandtztorp 1574), Norra Skrävlinge parish, Onsjö hundred, has been considered to have either the man’s name Common Scandinavian Tiðkumi or the noun Old Danish tækkeman ‘roofer’ as its first element. However, a more likely interpretation is a characterising man’s name Old Danish *Thiukk(e)man, with a weakly or strongly inflected adjective thiukk ‘thick’ as its first element.

In the parish of Mörlunda, Aspeland hundred, in Småland Province, the largest village goes by the name of Tulunda (Tulundum 1355). It immediately borders the church village Mörlunda (mørlunda 1329), which is remarkable considering that these two villages are the only ones in the whole of Småland with the old, pre-Christian place-name element ‑lunda. The word lund here most likely has the meaning ‘holy grove, sacrificial grove’. Tulunda could mean ‘two groves’. Most probably, Tulunda was previously a simplex name *Lunda. *Twalunda probably originally referred to both Tulunda and Mörlunda together, but the name was subsequently transferred to the larger village of the two, *Lunda.