Just a brief note about the origins of the place names encountered on this site

Gefrin has Celtic roots. The Celtic (and Welsh incidentally) word for goat is gavr. The plural of this, in use during the sixth century was gevr.

The welsh term bryn, a hill, is again derived from the Celtic fryn or vrinn.

We can now assemble the parts. gevr-vrinn or gevrinn, meaning 'hill of the goats' easily becomes Gefrin.

The modern name Yeavering is a corruption of this. Indeed, when anointed with a good dose of the local dialect, Gefrin and Yeavering sound almost identical.

And goats...? There are still goats at Yeavering. Large, hairy, feral goats with fearsome horns. These are not, sadly, descended from prehistoric stock and are apparantly from a herd introduced in the 19th century. It seems inconcievable that a place as important as Yeavering would be named after a few goats running around on the hill. It is more likely that there is a symbolic mythological connection here. It may be significant that Brian Hope Taylor found a goats skull and a 'ceremonial staff' decorated with what may have been a goat motif in one of the most significant Anglian burials at Ad Gefrin.