View Message

Yes and no. With any other language, I'd be hesitant to search that way, because I don't know the language very well. But with Old English names, you can easily see the elements being put together in different orders and with different elements. My reasoning in this case was based on the wide use of the element stan in other names.

---

The element stan, meaning "stone", comes with all of the following elements:

---

æðel, meaning "noble" (as in Aethelstan)
dun, meaning "dark" (as in Dunstan)
ford, meaning "ford" (as in Stanford)
leah, meaning "meadow" or "clearing" (as in Stanley)
thur, meaning "Thor" (as in Thurstan)
wig, meaning "Battle" (as in Wystan)

---

You also see the later equivalent turning up in Winston, and the Norse equivalent in names such as Eysteinn, Torsten, Halstein etc.

---

Given that the element stan is so widely used in names (and there are many more place names with the element that haven't become personal names), it seems eminently reasonable that Leofstan is yet another stan compound, particularly as leof itself is an Old English element showing up in several two-element compound names (Leofric and Leofwine again as examples).

---

Did that all make sense? :-)

---

♦ Chrisell ♦

---

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.

---