the name of the island may be derived from the old norse; either "ǫngullsey" "hook island" or "ǫnglisey" "ǫngli's island". no record of such an ǫngli survives, but the place name was used by viking raiders as early as the 10th century and was later adopted by the normans during their invasions of gwynedd. the traditional folk etymology reading the name as the "island of the angles (english)" may account for its norman use but has no merit, although the angles' name itself is probably a cognate reference to the shape of the angeln peninsula. all of these ultimately derive from the proposed proto-indo-european root "*ank-" ("to flex, bend, angle"). through the 18th and 19th centuries and into the 20th, it was usually spelt anglesea in documents.