Ceawlin (name)
A key early attestation comes in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, where a list of kings who ruled "in regibus gentis Anglorum cunctis australibus" ("in all the southern regions of the people of the English") includes "Caelin rex Occidentalium Saxonum, qui lingua ipsorum Ceaulin uocabatur" ("Caelin king of the West Saxons, who in their language is called Ceaulin", book ii chapter 5).The presence of ea in the first syllable of the West Saxon form can be explained as palatal diphthongisation caused by the initial consonant,[2]: 63 which happened more regularly in West Saxon than in Northumbrian,[3] but the only attempt to explain the absence of the w appears to be Anderson's comment 'we may also note the loss of w in the Northumbrian form caelin of the pers.[4]: 118 The i in the second syllable does not seem to have caused i-mutation, indicating that the name was coined or borrowed into Old English after that sound-change was complete.[5]: 4–5 An Old English personal name Ceawa is attested in two Berkshire place-names, Chawridge and West/East Challow, and some scholars have assumed that this name is related to Ceawlin.[5]: 4 [6] Since there is no obvious Old English or wider Germanic origin for Ceawlin,[5]: 4 commentators have frequently assumed that it must originate in the Celtic languages, like the name Cerdic borne by another early West Saxon king.