In our case there is a lot to the
name. It is possible that the name was originally Eigil,
the name of the hero archer of Norse mythology. A
contraction of Eigil one might conclude would be El or Ayl.
The English town of Aylesbury was originally spelled
AEglesbyrig. Most of the records of that time were made in
Latin and the name Aylworth is spelled variously as
Aisselesworde, Esseleswrde, Eyleworthe and Eylewrthe. Is it
any wonder why people even today have trouble with the
spelling?
The term "worth" is described as
either: a homestead, bounded or walled land, a small
farmstead, an enclosed valley, and a warded or protected
place. The Saxon English geographical phase, AEgels-Worth
is deciphered as "awe-inspiring one's homestead". Thus we
might conclude the spelling of Aylworth meant the Worth of
Ayl(e) and possibly Aylesworth was the possessive form as
Ayl(e)'s Worth. A person from that place would be known as
John of Aylworth. When after the Norman conquest of England
as surnames were adopted it became John Aylworth.
From Arthur's Etymological
Dictionary of Family Surnames (1887) we, find Aylesworth, a
Cornish name that may be interpreted as a village in a
meadow. This accurately describes the village of Aylworth.
It is derived from ayles, low meadow lands, and gwerth, a
worth, farm or village. In the old English, the prefix ail
is often an abbreviation of aethel, noble, worthy.
