The early history of the English Isles holds clues that project the strong possibility that the surname Self evolves from the time of the raids and the settlement of the North sea tribes in those islands now called the British Isles.
The early inhabitants of those islands were the Celts of the area now known as England, the Irish of the island of Ireland, and the Picts and Scots of the areas of northern England and Scotland.
In 43 A.D., the Roman Emperor Claudius launched an expedition
against the Celtic inhabitants of England and colonization was pushed north into Scotland.
Roman rule lasted through about three hundred years, prevailing against the efforts of the
original inhabitants of the occupied area to dislodge that portion of the Roman Empire from their shores.
The potential for destruction of that part of the Roman Empire lay not in the English Isles, but rather, to the east of thoses islands in the presence of the Germanic tribes of North Europe and the Vikings of Scandanavia. The Danes, the Jutes, the Angles, and the Saxons had an early capability for seaborne raids on the English Isles. The Vikings, or Scandinavians of Norway and Sweden, were the most capable of the sea raiders. These tribes found the English Isles close and fair game for raids and whatever profit could be taken. These seaborne raids were sparodic until events forced the eastern tribes into more massive and more direct actions.
The Hun invasion of eastern Europe in the fourth and fifth centuries caused the tribes to seek and find the capability to resettle on Englis shores. By the mid six hundreds the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, and Vikings had England, Scotland, and some of Ireland in their possessions. It was a slow process and the tribes spent time picking and favouring various parts of the English Isles. The Danes took to the area immediately south of the river Humber on the east shore of England and extending to the south. the Jutes favored the southwest of England. The Angles and Saxons pfrferred, in general, the southeastern portion of that island. The Vikings looked with favor, and took, parts of Ireland, various areas along the southern half of the west coast of England, northeast Scotland, and various islands in the Irish sea. They took special care to take that part of the eastern coast of England north of the river Humber that is now called Northumberland. These resettlements were and still are regarded as, and called, the Anglo-Saxon resettlement as the Anglo-Saxons did, in fact, relocate in England in larger numbers than did the other tribes.
Power disputes held sway in England among tribes, families, and factions, until the strongest, the Anglo-Saxons were subdued by Norman conquest in 1066. In that year, William the Conquerer, Duke of Normandy (in France) invaded England. In the battle that followed, Harold II, the ruling king of England, was killed. Harold II was the last Saxon ruler of England.
William, the Conquerer, directed that a list of all persons, owners, or holders of English land be prepared.
This list came to be known as the Doomesday Book. Bear in mind that many or most of the landholders were of Anglo, Saxon, Jute, Dane, and Viking origins. Three names are to be found on the list that may have been in the development of the surname Self from one of the tribal languages. The names and locations involved are:
Saolf - Hampshire.
Saulf - Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Cornwall, Worcester, Northampton, Warwick, shropshire, Devon, Derby.
Saulfi - Wiltshire.
Derby, Shropshire, Worcester, warwick, And Northampton are in Central England, the others in Southern England.
The list was compiled prior to William's death in 1087. Please keep in mind that spelling and writing in English and Latin had not fully developed at that time and that geographical accents, as they have so often done, influenced pronunciation of words and names and the spelling of those words and names. And, too, spelling and writing were themselves still in the developmental stage.
I'm reasonably sure that the surname Self (or Selfe) as it is now spelled and pronounced evolved in England prior to 1600. The name began to appear, in various spellings, in 1379 in Yorkshire, spreading from there to Wiltshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk Counties and to London. Families of that name appear to be related chiefly to the merchant, landed, and educated classes. There must have been other Self families, but it is likely that only those of the merchant, religious, landed, and educated pursuits would have been recorded.
A Self family of landed gentry existed in Wiltshire. An Edward Selfe of Melksham, County of Wiltshire, had a son named Isaac Selfe, born 1564, died 1656, who became a member of the Middle Temple, one of two Inns of Court, London. Another version presents another Isaac Self (of later date) as the Middle Temple member.
Prior to the execution of charles I, King of England, in 1649, most of the English moving to America were those seeking religious freedom. Following the execution, an increasing number of those arriving in America, especially in Virginia, were of the gentry, the landed, and the well to do.
There is nothing, nor is there any version or conclusion, that definitely establishes the origin of the surname Self. The two theories that reach furthest into the past and coincidentally are the most logical of the possibilities regarding the origin of the name root themselves in the post-Roman era in England.
One version presents the name as having the meaning (or originating with) "a dweller on or near a rock or ledge, such as a riverbank." The name, accorfing to this version was associated with the village of Schelf, a community in Yorkshire, and one of seventeen villages that joined the Union of Halivas. This union was a measure taken for mutual protection against invasion, banditry, and other hazards of the times. As stated, the name began to appear in 1379, and in various spellings that tended to lead it toward the pronunctiation of Self.
For example - omit the h from the word Schelf.
To me a more probable version of the origin of the name, even though Anglo-Saxonized, is that the name stems directly from the Norseman (Northman) word "Sjolfr". This word was variously pronounced as "saeulfe", "saeulfr", and "saewulf". It's meaning is "seawolf". Other Anglo-Saxonized spellings for the word were "Soelf" and "Seulf". I think that old England adopted many of the Norse words with very little change in pronunciation. Take for example, the Norse word "saebeorn" meaning "seaborne" and the word "saemann" meaning "seaman". The Norseman, in my thinking, obviously brought his tradename with him when he came to the shores of England.
Well there it is. You can accept your name as coming down from some character that sat on a ledge riverbank watching the water flow by, or you can believe your name came from a bold, daring, combative seawolf. I'll go for the more exciting of the two versions for my choice.
This article is excerpted, and printed with permission, from a feature article written by Richard Self of Tombstone, AZ., and printed in the Self Family Newsletter, December 1983