Turbefield - Name

Recorded in a number of spellings including Turberville, Turberfield, and Turbefield, this is an adopted English surname, but one which is literally medieval French. It originates from a place called Thouberville in the department of Eure in Normandy, and is first recorded in England about seventy years after the famous Conquest and Invasion of 1066. There are many early recordings suggesting that the original nameholders must have been very popular with the Dukes of Normandy. The meaning of the original French village, and hence the later surname is probably "Thors house", from the Norse-Viking gods name, which is also used in the weekday name of Thursday. Normandy itself means the place of the Norse men, the early Vikings not being content with trying to invade most of England, Scotland, the Isle of Man and most of Ireland, also marched down from Scandanavia through Northern Germany and France, until exhausted, for a time, they came to a halt in Normandy. The change in the English spelling sometimes from "ville" to "field", may have been an attempt to reduce the Frenchness of the spelling, during the periods of the many wars against France. Early examples of the surname spelling include John de Turbeville of Berkshire in the Hundred Rolls of 1273, and William Turbefield, whose son Basil was christened at Kensington Church, Westminster, in 1566.