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The City of York
Above: Bootham Bar and York Minster from an old postcard
See also Jorvik in the Timeline
The Roman name for York was Eboracum, based on a native British name for the ancient site. It is thought that the root of the early name was Eburos, an Ancient British personal name, which suggests that the site was founded by someone called Eburos. An alternative view is that the name is based on the Ancient British word Eburos meaning Yew, a sacred Celtic tree from which the personal name Eburos derives. In Roman times there was a Gaulish tribe called the Eburorovices, who were the ‘Warriors of the Yew Tree’.
When the Anglo-Saxons arrived in the north from Germany and Denmark in the sixth century they made Eboracum the capital of Deira, a Northumbrian sub-kingdom. Eboracum was corrupted by Anglo-Saxon speech into Eoforwic meaning ‘wild boar settlement’. The Anglo-Saxons confused the Celtic word ‘Ebor’ meaning yew tree with their own word ‘Eofor’ meaning ‘wild boar’.
In 865 AD the Danes captured the North and in 876 Halfdene the Dane made Eoforwic the capital of the Viking Kingdom of York . Later in 918 AD a mixed race of Norwegian-Irish Vikings settled at York and for many years York was subordinated to the Viking stronghold at Dublin. Viking influence can still be detected in the street names of York, where the suffix ‘gate’ as in Stonegate or Goodramgate derives from the Old Norse ‘gata’ meaning road or way. Stonegate follows the course of a Roman road through the city and Goodramgate is named after Guthrum, a Viking leader.
The Vikings interpreted Eoforwic, the Anglo-Saxon name for York as Jorvik. The change of the Saxon f to a Viking V occured in other words in the English language such as the Anglo Saxon word ‘Seofan’ which was changed by the Vikings into its modern form ‘Seven’. In the late Viking period it is thought that the name Jorvik was shortened to something resembling its present form, York and in the medieval age the name York was generally used, although an independent form ‘Yerk’ is known to have existed at this time. One of the problems of studying York’s name is that many early records are written in Latin and thus use the Roman name Eboracum in periods when Eoforwic or Jorvik were used in every day speech. Today the early forms of York’s name are still well known and although the Viking Kingdom of York no longer exists, its natural successor Yorkshire - ‘the county of York’ still takes its name from this ancient city.