Grimley
Major Settlement in the Parish of Grimley
Historical Forms
- Grimanlea(ge), Grimanlæge 851 BCS462 11th 964 12th ib
- Grimsetene gemære 969 BCS1242 11th
- Grimanleh 1086 DB
- Grimeleia, Grimeleg(a) c.1086 EveA&B 1190 WoP 1240
- Grimeslea 1186 P
- Grimley, Gryndley 1542,1546 LP
Etymology
The pers. name Grim as commonly found in 10th cent. documents and in numerous place-names in Scandinavian England is commonly and rightly taken to be a loan-word from the Scand. name Grímr . It is however a little difficult to think that we have that pers. name in the well-known Grim's Dyke (W), grímes dic in BCS 934, or in this name or in the neighbouring Greenhill in Hallow infra 131, which clearly contains the same pers. name Grīm (a ) as this one does, and must indeed be named from the same man. In BCS 356 the boundary is said to run betweonan Griman and Halheogan . If we accept this as correct we must take griman as some significant word of unknown meaning, but probably it is simply a careless shortening of the full name Grimanleage . Grimley and Greenhill and a lost Grimenhille in Alvechurch (FF 1244) point clearly to the existence in OE itself of a pers. name Grīm (a ), which is the cognate of the Scand. name and of OGer Grim (o ) (cf. Förstemann PN 669).This name itself is the OE grīma , 'spectre, goblin.' For Grimsetene v. Broadwas supra 103. In WoC (19 b) we have Werlegesmora and in WoP (42 b) we have Werle , both in Grimley. These must be the Wærlega of the bounds of Hallow (BCS 356). The Sifurdeleyam of WoC (61 b) must also contain the stream- name sih (t )ferð in the bounds of Grimley (BCS 462).