Blair Collection > Surnames & place-names of the Isle of Man

8o Manx SurnamBs.
Castell and Caistell, contracted from Mac-as-Ketill*
Ketill is equivalent to the English ' kettle.' In
the Icelandic poets of the tenth century the un-
contracted form was used, but in the eleventh it
began to be contracted into Kel. Its frequent
occurrence in nomenclature doubtless arises from
the use of the Ve-kell, or ' Holy Kettle,' at sacri-
fices. Gumming reads 'OsKETiL'f on the frag-
ment of a cross in the Museum at Distington,
which was formerly at Kirk Michael, but Dr. Vig-
fusson makes this name ' Roscil ' ;:|: and Worsaae
speaks of * the well-known Scandinavian name
AsKETiL ' being ' found on the remains of a runic
inscription in the Museum at Douglas ' ;§ but this
refers to the same stone, as ' Douglas ' is an error
for ' Distington.'
AsKELL is found in the Flatcyjarhoc ; Oscytyl
was Abbot of Croyland in a.d. 992, and Askel,
king of Dublin, in a.d. 1159.
'Our beloved and faithful Gilbert Macaskel.' ||
' To Gilbert Makaskill, Keeper of the Isle of Man.'^
Compare (O.N.) Asketil, Askell, (English)
AsKETiL, Asketel (.found in the Hundred Rolls),
Kettle, Castle, (Gaelic) Gaskell.
MacAskel [1311], Makaskill [1312], Caskell and
MacCaskell[i5ti], Caistil[i699], Caistell [1725],
Castil [1733], Castell [1750], Castle [17S9].
It is now hardly found anywhere, though for-
merly common in Bride, to which parish it was
almost confined.
* For as, see Casement.
t Cumming, Runic Remains.
% Manx Note Book, No. 9, pp. 18-19.
§ Worsaae, The Danes and Northmen, p. 283.
II Manx Society, Vol. VII., p. 153.
H/^/^., p. 154.'