Othen Family History

From a Middle English personal name Othin Odin attested in the forename of Odin Goldeberd 1327 Othynus Guldebort 1332 in Subsidy Rolls (Rodmell Sussex). It probably represents Anglo-Scandinavian Oðin or Ōðin, Old Scandinavian Auðunn or Auðin, Øthin, Odhin, Ǿthæn (of uncertain interpretation).

Its appearance in 14th-century Sussex is unexpected, being so far from the ‘Scandinavian’ counties of Yorks, Lincs, and Norfolk where the name is evidenced in place-names before the Norman Conquest and as a given name thereafter until the 12th century. Normans in those counties apparently treated it as an English pronunciation of one of their own names, Old French Odin (or O(u)en), though it has a different origin (see Odden).

As such, it may have survived much longer as a traditional given name in one or more Anglo-Norman families who held lands in and beyond the former Danelaw counties. In Hants and W Sussex, it may have been confused with both Odden and Outen.