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ArchivesMeaning of last name Thornburgh?
If anyone knows what the last name Thornburgh means please email me and let me know. I'm doing some research for friends finding out what thier names mean. Thank you!
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My mother’s maiden name was Thornburgh.
The Norse Vikings had a rune for the first part ᚦ meaning Thurisaz, Thorr, or Simply Thorn.
That runs is now a letter still used in the Icelandic language as þ lowercase, making the Thhh! Sound.
It also means giant.
Technically Thornburgh in Swedish is Törnberg, most likely its origin.
It means giant thorn mountain. As berg means mountain in old Germanic.
The Norse Vikings had a rune for the first part ᚦ meaning Thurisaz, Thorr, or Simply Thorn.
That runs is now a letter still used in the Icelandic language as þ lowercase, making the Thhh! Sound.
It also means giant.
Technically Thornburgh in Swedish is Törnberg, most likely its origin.
It means giant thorn mountain. As berg means mountain in old Germanic.
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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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A lastname like that could most likely stem from several different germanic languages. _If_ swedish, as suggested by another poster, there are a number of possible lastnames that might be altered to 'Thornburgh' if the name's bearer moves to a country where english is the main language:
Tornberg
Törnberg
Tornborg
Törnborg
All of these could also be spelled with an 'h' between the 'T' and the vowel. Such an 'h' is merely a "decorative" letter, and has no influence on pronunciation. (But in english of course it turns the the first sound into a 'þ'.)(The sound 'þ' disappeared from swedish many hundred years ago.)
'törn' means 'spike', 'thorn'
'torn' means 'tower'
'berg' means 'hill', 'mountain'
'borg' means 'fortress', 'castle'
Very many swedish lastnames are constructed along this pattern; two separate words are combined to produce a name. Sometimes the compounded elements make logical sense (i.e. refers to some real object, and can be found as autonomous words in the language), but often they don't really refer to anything reasonable (i.e. do not appear in the language as stand-alone words, they exist only as names.)
Tornberg
Törnberg
Tornborg
Törnborg
All of these could also be spelled with an 'h' between the 'T' and the vowel. Such an 'h' is merely a "decorative" letter, and has no influence on pronunciation. (But in english of course it turns the the first sound into a 'þ'.)(The sound 'þ' disappeared from swedish many hundred years ago.)
'törn' means 'spike', 'thorn'
'torn' means 'tower'
'berg' means 'hill', 'mountain'
'borg' means 'fortress', 'castle'
Very many swedish lastnames are constructed along this pattern; two separate words are combined to produce a name. Sometimes the compounded elements make logical sense (i.e. refers to some real object, and can be found as autonomous words in the language), but often they don't really refer to anything reasonable (i.e. do not appear in the language as stand-alone words, they exist only as names.)
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Prissy
Prissy
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I guess it means "a fortress with towers". In Swedish (my mother tongue, the word is "tornborg")
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