Namnet Bōiʀ

Abstract

The name Bōi is attested eight times in Runic Swedish inscriptions. Twice, how­ever, it is found as a prepositional object, in Ög 183 Kärrsjö ḅui and Sö Fv1986;218 Harby bui. This could represent an irregular case of a nominative instead of the expected accusative in a prepositional object, or else a simple mis­carving, but in consideration of forms like Balliʀ ~ Balli, Snærriʀ ~ Snærri, Svæiniʀ ~ Svæni and Þōriʀ ~ Þōri, we could be dealing with a known variation between name forms formed according to both ia-stems and an-stems.