The absence in East Anglia of fixed runic inscriptions, except a late example about A.D. 1050 in the church at Aldborough,[1] therefore suggests the inquiry whether East Anglia was not originally occupied partly by settlers of Frisian and German origin rather than exclusively by colonists of the Anglian race. It is evidence also that its early colonists came mainly from north German lands rather than from the original homes of the people known as Angles. Viewed in this light, the original settlement of the eastern counties must be regarded as more Saxon than Anglian, more Frisian than Gothic or Scandian. As regards the Goths, Beddoe[2] has, however, pointed out that the name of Tytila (A.D. 586), son of Uffa, King of East Anglia, is very like that of Totila, King of the Ostrogoths.
In the eastern counties, as elsewhere, the place-names derived from people are probably as old as the settlement. The places must have been the abodes of men after whom they were named, and where they were designated by tribal names it probably was because their occupants were of these tribes.
When we think how few must have been the original places of settlement in any county compared with the total number of inhabited places at the present time, the survival of even a few place-names which may be referred to clan or tribal names must be regarded as remarkable. Many very old tribal or family names have, however, survived, of which only a few of each type can be quoted, such as Hunn and Finbo. Hunn is a family name at the present time at Old Hunstanton in Norfolk, which derived its name, apparently, from one or more settlers that were called Hunn. Finbo also survives in the same neighbourhood. These names point to the settlement in this part of England of some individuals of the Hunsing and Fin tribes.
